


Before the War

by a_borderlands_tale (the_lady_storyteller)



Series: The Pandora Saga [2]
Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Rhyiona - Freeform, Sirens, Vault of the Traveller, part of the After the Vault series, the other side of the tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-04-29 16:21:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 35,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5134454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_lady_storyteller/pseuds/a_borderlands_tale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He coughed a few times, sitting up as he rubbed his cheek where his jaw had collided with the sand, moving it around a few times to make sure it wasn't broken.</p><p>He opened his mouth to call out to Fiona, when he finally glanced up.</p><p>Helios was in flames.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not Quite What He Expected

**Author's Note:**

> The other side of the tale. 
> 
> Or, in which it turns out the Vault of the Traveller has many, many hidden abilities.

_Rhys had a rather spectacular habit of impulsiveness. Not that he ever really meant to be, of course._  
  
And it wasn't like it had ever really done him any favours. Left him stranded on a desert planet with his best friend and two con women just as eager to get their hands on the case of money Rhys and Vaughn had brought as to strangle them once they got said case.  
  
But as it turned out, for once his impulsivity had been an asset. After all, if it wasn't for him they wouldn't even been given the opportunity to go into an alien Vault. Hell, the sextet would not have even met each other if he hadn't decided getting a damn promotion was more important than laying low at Hyperion for another day.  
  
And he didn't have too many regrets about it.  
  
Then again, a year tended to soften some blows. Hell, it was easy to look back at all that had happened as merely part of a grander adventure. A chaotic adventure that had nearly gotten them killed numerous times....but still.  
  
Funnily enough, despite his impulsive nature, Rhys hated the unexpected. He had set up his existence even prior to Hyperion to be ordered and precise. To make sure everything and everyone were in their proper place.  
  
He liked structure. Sue him.  
  
So to say he was a little unnerved when he came to the realization that perhaps a certain con woman did not fit into his categorization as "no class, scheming Pandoran scum", would be the understatement of the decade.  
  
Because Christ. It was _Fiona_. Fiona, the woman who had nearly screwed him out of his money back when they first met, who with her lunacy had turned his world on its axis.  
  
I mean, Sasha had too, but for some reason that had been an easier pill to swallow. Probably because it was the path of least resistance to him.  
  
Hell, he could see something happening between them, despite the circumstances.  
  
But with Fiona? _Christ_. That would be like gambling against someone with their loaded dice. No possibility of success.  
  
And besides, he didn't want that. He didn't want _her_.  
  
Except he wasn't so certain of that anymore. If a damn month had changed his perspective on things, then that mere fortnight Fiona and him had trudged through the desert was akin to being given his new ECHO eye. Bringing everything into sharp focus.  
  
Such as the fact that when he saw that gun placed to Fiona's head he tried to get to his feet, calculating how to attack Kroger. Bash his brains in, protect her. It hadn't even been a conscious thought, just a pressing need.  
  
Because shit. _He genuinely cared._  
  
It only got clearer once they were all reunited. And Rhys was stunned at himself once he saw Sasha again.  
  
Because he could honestly say all he felt was...nothing. No traces of lingering feelings. Just a warm happiness to see an old friend again.  
  
So when Fiona asked him to keep away, he accepted without hesitation. He expected her to elaborate on it, but for some reason she didn't.  
  
And that actually bothered him.  
  
Because as they walked up that staircase leading to the casket, all he felt was a different kind of warmness. And it spilled over into his words, and it would have been horrific if Fiona had not responded in kind.  
  
And it startled him. **Gloriously**.  
  
When he offered his hand to her to help her get up to the case, he expected her to slap it away. Say she was fine.  
  
But then she took it, and he couldn't help but grin. The words poised on his lips, to tease her about it.  
  
The words died as she looked at him, those pale green eyes glinting in the light of the Vault.  
  
And he wondered if she would punch him in the neck again if he just leaned forward, brushing his mouth against hers, clasp the back of her head as he sighed into her mouth before she would....  
  
He shook his head.  
  
_The Vault came first._  
  
And so they had opened it together, a violet light assaulting both their vision before Rhys found himself lying face down in the dirt.  
  
He coughed a few times, sitting up as he rubbed his cheek where his jaw had collided with the sand, moving it around a few times to make sure it wasn't broken.  
  
He opened his mouth to call out to Fiona, when he finally glanced up.  
  
Helios was in flames.  
  
And all he saw was a figure stumbling through the rubble, the familiar turquoise shirt and Rakk leather vest making them easy to spot.  
  
He lurched up quickly in utter confusion.  
  
He had to have hit his head or something. Fallen into unconsciousness, his mind merely replaying the events he had recently spoke of to Loader Bot and Fiona.  
  
Except he felt the warmth from the flames, coughed at the smoke.  
  
And when he heard that familiar voice, congratulating and chastising him at the same time, that superior smug tone strangely absent, he felt all the breath leave his body in one whoosh.  
  
No. No no no no no.  
  
He couldn't be here. He couldn't be witnessing this again.  
  
He stumbled to his feet, approaching the rubble as he tried to figure out where Jack's office had landed.  
  
Handsome Jack's words echoed as he walked and he shuddered. Christ, to think he had worshiped the man was a wonder to even him.  
  
And then the screaming started, Rhys' normal hand going to his cybernetic arm automatically. Rhys breathed through his nose as he heard his past self loudly scream and gasp through the pain, his heart pounding wildly.  
  
Rhys closed his eyes, trying to figure out just how the hell he had ended up here. Rubbing his temples, wracking his brain for why the hell a Vault would send him back in _freaking time._  
  
Hell, if it was supposed to be used as a way to change things then it really should have sent him to the start of it all. Back on Helios. Back when he was just another Hyperion cog.  
  
Not this. This moment where he'd been forced to tear himself apart to rid himself of the once great Handsome Jack.  
  
Which would have never even been the case if he hadn't been an idiot and shoved the ID drive into his skull.  
  
He heard a strange sound of scraping and opened his eyes to see a familiar legless robot trying to scramble their way across the desert. On his way to get to the immortality suit no doubt. To begin the next chapter.  
  
Strange to think he hadn't seen him the first time.  
  
A sharp thump echoed behind him, the sheet metal still vibrating and he glanced over to see he had passed out. Ah. That would do it.  
  
Loader Bot continued to crawl forward and Rhys expected him to just crawl past where he was standing.  
  
"Hi."  
  
That familiar red eye was watching him and Rhys froze.  
  
"Heyyyy LB," he replied awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.  
  
"You survived the crash," he stated simply. "I feel...neutral about this."  
  
Rhys frowned as Loader Bot slipped past him, crawling towards the immortality suit before he stopped. Glanced at the Rhys currently sprawled out on the ground.  
  
"I do not understand," he stated.  
  
"Look, neither do I, but you need to leave him...me, alone. Alright?" Rhys ordered.  
  
"You are hurt. You need medical attention," Loader Bot replied. "Even if you did hurt Gortys."  
  
Loader Bot's eye began to flicker in and out and Rhys shook his head.  
  
"He'll...I'll be fine. I swear."  
  
Rhys shook his head and sighed.  
  
"I can guarantee we didn't hurt Gortys. And I'll tell you all about it, I swear, but we need to get you uploaded into the suit."  
  
Rhys grabbed the suit and dragged it forward.  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because damnit LB, I'm not going to let you die on some wasteland planet," he replied sharply as the metal scrapped against metal with a sickening screech.  
  
"Why do you care?" Loader Bot asked.  
  
Rhys sighed.  
  
"Because we've gone through too much for me not to."  
  
  
Rhys still wasn't quite sure how he had done it, the wiring tucked away safely as Loader Bot tested out his new body. Turning his hand this way and that, testing out the fingers.  
  
"Feels...light," he stated and Rhys smiled. He brushed off his pants and began to roll down his sleeves.  
  
"Is it true? What you said about Gortys?" Loader Bot asked and Rhys nodded.  
  
"Every last word, LB," Rhys replied. "We never meant to hurt her. I swear."  
  
"We need to get her back," Loader Bot stated and Rhys sighed.  
  
"I know," Rhys replied as he watched Loader Bot stand up.  
  
"Good. I will look for the first piece and you will look for Fiona."  
  
Rhys sputtered at this.  
  
"I'm sorry, what?"  
  
"It would be more efficient if we split up. Once you find Fiona we can reunite the pieces and get Gortys back."  
  
Loader Bot stood up and began to slip on the radiation suit.  
  
"Wait wait wait. How do you expect me to find Fiona?" Rhys asked.  
  
Loader Bot did not respond, merely tossing another suit at Rhys feet along with the Conference Call gun.  
  
"I am sure you will figure it out," Loader Bot replied. "Though if you would like some assistance, I am 93% certain she will have returned to Hollow Point. There is nothing else left for her to want to return to."  
  
Loader Bot slipped on the helmet for the suit.  
  
"I will contact you once I have found the first piece."  
  
Rhys nodded, noticing that Loader Bot wasn't carrying a weapon as he walked away.  
  
"Hey hey hey LB! Aren't you forgetting something?" Rhys called out as he held up the gun. Loader Bot shook his head.  
  
"You need it more. You have Fiona to protect."  
  
Rhys honestly couldn't argue with that logic.

Besides, LB knew how to fight.

 _He hoped._  
  
And so Rhys found himself slipping into a radiation suit, strapping the gun to his side.  
  
Well. Time to find Fiona he supposed.  
  
Not that that prospect of that _excited_ him or anything.


	2. Retrieving A Vault Hunter

As it turned out, _saying_ you were going to find a Vault Hunter and then _actually being able to do it_ were vastly different things.

Mostly because Vault Hunters? Yeah, they’re good at not being found. Being able to disappear is their whole M.O.

Or at least, that what was Rhys was rapidly learning.

Also not the best plan? Walking around in some radiation suit in the middle of the Pandoran desert, the sun beat down on the metal causing your back to develop a sort of stickiness you didn’t think the human body was capable of.

Rhys had spent weeks trying to find Fiona, and his frustration with this fact was not exactly helped by Loader Bot chirping in his ear that he had already found the first piece of Gortys. Frankly Rhys was just tempted to try to find the pieces himself, searching for Fiona be damned, and then just have Loader Bot contact Fiona and let her know of the plan.

Except as it turned out…Pandora was a lot larger than he remembered. You could spend a whole month walking through one section and still not have ended up anywhere important. Or with food and water.

God, he’d kill for that pizza right now. Even if the intentions for giving it to him were less then pure.

His stomach churned painfully. All he’d eaten over the past few days was random plants he could find and he was surprised he hadn’t killed himself yet.

He loaded up his ECHO and waited for Loader Bot to respond.

“Heyyyy LB, so would you mind doing me a favour and telling me where Fiona might be?” Rhys asked as he pulled up the mask in order to breathe.

“Was she not in Hollow Point?” Loader Bot asked simply and Rhys sighed.

“I tried looking for her there but there was no sign of her.”

“Did you try to contact Sasha?”

“Yeah, no LB, that…that wouldn’t be the best of ideas right now,” Rhys replied as he imagined a gun pressed to the hollow of his throat. “We, ahh, we didn’t exactly part on the best of terms…”

“If you say it is important to find her sister she would be willing to assist you,” Loader Bot replied and Rhys shook his head.

“Loader, I’m pretty sure she’d be happier to shoot my head off,” Rhys replied, before he realized that Fiona probably would be even worse if she figured out who he was. If he ever found her, that is. “Hey, are you sure it’s a good idea for me to be looking for Fiona anyhow?”

“Affirmative. I need you both to activate Gortys. Without her we cannot complete the mission.”

“Well, yeah, but…pretty sure she’s not on Pandora anymore,” Rhys replied as he glanced around at the seemingly never-ending desert. “So unless you have any other ideas…”

Loader Bot was silent for a few moments before he responded.

“We will give her an incentive to return,” Loader Bot replied.

“What kind of incentive?” Rhys asked hesitantly. “Because I’m not going to kidnap Sasha or anything like that…”

Besides, she’d probably be able to break him in half if she wanted to. The thought made him shudder.

“No need. I will aid in deploying an advertisement saying that there is 10 million dollars for any Vault Hunter willing to do a job for someone on Pandora.”

“And how do we know other Vault Hunters won’t show up instead?”

“Because you will only send it to her ECHO,” Loader Bot replied.

“M-me? You want _me_ to be the one to send it out?” Rhys asked skeptically. “She won’t even want to look at it if she knows it’s coming from me!”

“You will figure it out. I have confidence in you.”

The ECHO clicked off and Rhys groaned to himself. He stared at the offending device before he turned it over, looking for a back panel. He removed the large gloves and dropped them into the dirt before he opened up the back, looking through the wires before he brushed them aside to reveal an ID chip. Without even pausing his ripped it out, turning on the ECHO to make sure it still worked.

“H-h-h-hello and w-w-w-w-welcome to your new E-E-E-ECHO C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-communicator model X24E. P-p-p-please input ID chip to continue,” the device stuttered and he banged it against his leg a few times. He looked at the indent in the back and took a deep breath.

“Let’s hope this works.”

He picked up a small stone about the same size and shoved it in, the device crackling with electricity causing him to drop it.

“Overload. Overload. Overload. Rebooting system.”

There were a few tense moments before the device started up again.

“Memory card reader damaged. Please seek repair at nearest time. Memory card reader damaged, please…”

Rhys allowed himself to hoot in triumph.

Tentatively picking up the ECHO he typed in a quick message to Loader Bot to give him the ad. The response was almost immediate and Rhys gave a low whistle at how professional it sounded. He prepped the message and hit the send button.

“Due to card damage, manually type in identity…” the device ordered. He typed in a random name and pressed send again, making sure to turn off the device before it started sparking again.

Now, he just had to wait.

 

_It all seemed highly suspicious and yet…she’d be a fool not to take it._

_As it turned out, Vault Hunting was less about actually finding treasure and more about making sure you didn’t die in the process. Hell, the treasure sometimes wasn’t even there, already snatched by another Vault Hunter with equal ambition to you._

_The intention had always been to get herself enough loot that she and Sasha could leave Pandora for good, settle on one of the Edens. This mission was supposed to set her up for life, and yet when she arrived all she found was a bare cavern._

_The message beeped on her ECHO and she cocked an eyebrow at the fact it had been sent a month or two ago. **So much for excellent interplanetary reception** , she thought wryly._

_She glanced back at the empty cavern and sighed to herself._

_What the hell. Couldn’t hurt to come back to Pandora. At least there if all else failed she could go back to being a con woman._

_And so she took the shuttle back to Pandora, her gun tucked into her sleeve as she looked over the message again._

_“Attention all Vault Hunters! Are you searching for riches? Sweet loot? The chance to have your name go down in history? If any of the above interests you then you're in luck! I need someone to help me find a Vault, and if you need any further incentive then the opportunity to claim riches unparalleled, I'm willing to pay you ten million upfront. Yes, you read that correctly! TEN MILLION DOLLARS JUST FOR SHOWING UP! If you are interested feel free to come to Prosperity Junction and look for a man named Clarke!”_

_He had her at ten million dollars._

Clarke had said to meet in Prosperity Junction to go over the deal. She had contacted him immediately, and from the way things sounded he was quite happy to hear from her. Voice was a bit...well, strange, but she figured he had good reasons to keep it concealed. He hadn't taken much convincing to select her actually, though his excuse was that it was a bit of a time sensitive matter and from he heard she was less, ahem, aggressive then other Vault Hunters in terms of getting results.

She kept her gun out as she milled through the town, her eyes darting into each alleyway and crevice as her boots sunk into the familiar sand. She approached a group of Pandorans who all looked at her casually before they returned to their business, stepping aside to let her pass.

She located the building he wanted to meet in, stepping inside as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

She only had time to feel the hairs on the back of her neck prickle before she heard what sounded like a genuine apology, something crackling before electricity travelled throughout her body and knocked her unconscious.

 

Rhys stared at his handiwork with a grimace.

He’d turned on the ECHO comm, allowed it to crack and spark before he pressed it against Fiona’s stomach, praying it would stun her long enough to allow him to explain the actual mission he’d been assigned.

Evidently though, he’d knocked her out cold and he sighed to himself as he knelt down and reached into her sleeve, pulling out her gun and weighing it in his palm. Damn, it was heavier than it looked. He removed the bullets and tossed them into the pack strapped to his back along with the gun, going over what he would say when Fiona awoke only to hear the sound of clicking.

“You took my gun?” she declared angrily, and Rhys couldn’t help but smile to himself at the indignation of her tone.

“You’d only try to shoot me with it,” Rhys replied as he slipped down the mask, allowing his words to travel through the suit’s communication system. His voice came out deeper than he expected and his eyebrows rose.

Damn, he sounded menacing. _Kinda awesome at the same time though._

“Well can you blame me?” Fiona asked sharply. “Correct me if I’m wrong but when you hire someone for a job the first thing you don’t do is try to kill them!”

“I wasn’t planning on killing you,” he replied with a small huff. “Just trying to stun you for a few minutes…”

“Why would you need to stun me? It’s not like you blackmailed me to come here!” Fiona replied. “To think I ever missed Pandora, Christ…”

He saw her roll her eyes and he chuckled a little to himself. Some things never changed he supposed. He could do without the scowl she was currently giving them though…even if he did deserve it a little.

“As it turns out, I need you for something a little more important than ten million dollars,” Rhys replied. “And if you knew what it was then you might not have come in the first place, or even if you did want to stay long enough for me to explain it.”

“Explain what?” Fiona asked sharply.

Rhys hesitated before he removed the mask, smoothing down his hair for good measure. Fiona’s eyes widened and her jaw tensed.

“Look, before you say anything…” Rhys began when she stood up, her shoulders tight as she stalked towards him. He swallowed audibly. “If you just give me some time to explain I swear…”

She knelt down and picked up the Conference Call gun, prepping it expertly and he took a few steps back as he held his hands up.

“Fiona, if you would just _listen_ for a few minutes I swear I can explain everything…” he declared rapidly, feeling the cool wood press against his neck as he was backed up against a support beam. She continued to walk towards him, his features twisted into a look of pure fury and he opened his mouth to speak.

“Yeah, saw her a few minutes ago,” they heard someone declare outside and Fiona swore loudly to herself as she lowered the gun.

Rhys grinned in relief.

It was short-lived, the side of the gun connecting with his jaw and he tasted copper before he collapsed with a sharp thump, the blackness surrounding him rapidly.


	3. A Temporary Alliance

She'd forgotten about the bounty on her head on Pandora.

It had started off just bring for petty crimes, though the money for her capture was still a fair sum on Pandora. Then again, most money was a fair sum on Pandora.  
  
Hard to keep any decent amount without some Vault Hunter stealing it from your locker or even your mailbox if you where dumb enough to put it there.  
  
Which usually meant that the Vault Hunters and whomever was allied with them tended to be the ones that were the best targets for pickpocketing and quick cons.  
  
Not that most people could do it, of course.  
  
But if Felix had messed up everything else, at least he had taught her sister and her how to rob them without them ever feeling a thing.  
  
Come to think of it, she wouldn't be surprised if it was all the Vault Hunters she had stolen from that had started the bounty.  
  
But after she became a Vault Hunter herself...well, let's just say the reward for her head increased. Exponentially.  
  
Hard to say on the right side of the law in pursuit of a Vault.  
  
So yes, she could admit when she heard outside that grubby hut that someone was looking to collect the reward...she sort of panicked.  
  
Well, that and she _really_ just wanted to hit Rhys in the face with the side of a heavy gun.  
  
Felt really good actually. After all, he **did** deserve it.  
  
Well actually he deserved to be shot point blank in the head but that was another matter entirely.  
  
The intention had been to just ditch him in the hut, hell leave him to the Skags when she took note of the expensive clothes spilling out of his pack. Too nice to be those of a grifter, meaning he worked for someone who could pay him well.  
  
And maybe she could use that to her advantage.  
  
Because if someone was powerful enough on Pandora to afford those sort of frivolous niceties...then they might give her a nice reward for Rhys' 'safe return'.  
  
She slid him out of the radiation suit, noticing the thin pullover shirt that had slipped down to expose a series of blue tattoos on his chest. From the way it looked due to one of the long sleeves rolling up, the tattoos went down his flesh arm and if she didn't know any better she would say he was a Siren.  
  
She snorted at the thought.  
  
Sirens weren't male, everyone knew that.  
  
She slid off the radiation suit pants to reveal another set of pants and she laughed despite herself. _Figured._  
  
_Only he would be dumb enough to wear two layers of pants in the Pandoran desert._  
  
She easily located his boots and shoved them onto his feet before she propped him against one of the beams in the hut.  
  
She found the rope he meant to tie her up with and easily looped it around his arms, tying it snugly before she went to check the rest of his pack.  
  
They could afford to leave the suit here, but the gun was obviously useful. The rest of his clothes would be a waste to carry around, and besides, if it meant that some lucky Pandoran could use them then she was happy to leave them.  
  
If anyone asked she could just say she found him like this, that he had been mugged. It would also explain away the nice bruising that was developing.  
  
She heard him moaning a little and stood up, the Conference Call already in her hand as she pointed it at his chest. She slipped his ECHO Comm into one of the holsters attached to her legs, making sure to put hers in the other one.  
  
"F-Fiona?" He asked with a wince, still coming to. She waited until he seemed mostly awake before she began to talk.  
  
"Here's what going to happen jackass," she snarled. "I need the money you promised me to get Sasha and I off Pandora, and you can help me get it..."  
  
"Yes, because clearly that worked out so well the last time..." Rhys replied with a smirk.  
  
"Well this time I'm making good on the promise to shoot you if it all goes sideways," Fiona replied as she prepped the gun.  
  
Rhys swallowed audibly.  
  
"Look, as fun as that _might_ be, I tricked you into coming back for a better reason," Rhys retorted.  
  
"Such as?" Fiona asked, waiting for some bullshit response.  
  
"I plan...well, Loader Bot plans to reopen the Vault of the Traveller," Rhys replied as Fiona's eyes widened slightly.  
  
"We destroyed Gortys, though," Fiona retorted, though there was a sadness to her words.  
  
"LB says all the parts likely survived and if we can get them all together again..."  
  
"Why? You saw what happened last time," Fiona interrupted, though she lowered the gun a little.  
  
"He says that..."  
  
There was a scuffling outside the door and Fiona tensed.  
  
"Shit," she murmured before she yanked Rhys to his feet, her eyes scanning for another exit.  
  
She saw a few loose boards on one of the walls, a shoddy repair job and she smiled to herself. She sprinted towards it and ripped down the boards with a grunt, not even pausing before she reached back, grabbed Rhys and all but threw him out of the hut.  
  
"Owww, Fiona, what the hell?" He groaned as he landed in the dirt.  
  
Fiona clamoured out after him, picking up the gun and nodding for him to get to his feet.  
  
"Follow me," she ordered.  
  
"Why the hell would ..." Rhys began as a sharp series of gunshots cracked through the air. He gulped. "Sounds good."  
  
He stumbled to his feet, and Fiona smiled a little as she saw how awkwardly his bound arms flailed around as he began to run.  
  
"Wait a minute, why the hell did you tie me up?" Rhys asked as they sprinted across the desert.  
  
"You _just_ noticed?" Fiona asked with a grin and he rolled his eyes.  
  
"No I didn't **_just notice_**!" he barked. "Could you untie me please?"  
  
"How do I know you're not going to try to take back the gun and shoot me?" Fiona retorted, panting a little from the exertion.  
  
"Because Loader Bot needs us both alive!" Rhys replied. "You remember the pieces, they're, I don't know, imprinted on us?"  
  
Rhys wheezed considerably.  
  
"And...besides...why...would...I...want...you...dead?"  
  
Fiona darted towards a nearby set of crevices where they could stop to take a breather.  
  
"I don't know, you tell me!" Fiona replied as they slipped between the rocks, emerging in a small section where the light trickled down giving the sand an almost reddish hue.  
  
"So, ahh, what's the plan then?" Rhys asked as he leaned against one of the rocks. His chest puffed in and out in obvious exertion, the tattoos exposed with every breath.  
  
"You mean you don't know where the first pieces are?" Fiona asked sharply.  
  
"Sure I do, if you let me see my ECHO..." Rhys began as he looked down at his person. "Wait."  
  
He looked at her in horror.  
  
"You didn't leave it there, did you?"  
  
She held it up to him.  
  
"Unlike some of us I'm not an idiot," she replied as she began to type into it only for it to crackle sharply. There was a spark and she dropped it with a sharp hiss.  
  
"You were saying?" Rhys asked with a grin and she rolled her eyes.  
  
"What the hell did you do to it anyways?" She asked as she stared at it. "It's almost as useless as that stun baton you used to have..."  
  
"It was not useless!" He protested. " _Sorry_ some of us weren't born knowing how to shoot a gun!"  
  
"Neither was I, genius," she replied as she tentatively touched the ECHO with her foot. It sparked again and she jumped back with a sharp yelp.  
  
"If it just shocked you, why would you touch it again?" Rhys asked in exasperation.  
  
"It was fine before," Fiona replied sharply.  
  
"Look if you just connect it to yours it will upload the data," Rhys retorted. "And then we can just ditch it..."  
  
"One, how and two, I'm sorry what?" Fiona replied. "Oh yes, just let me getting my connector thingies..."  
  
" _Connector **thingies**_?" Rhys replied in exasperation. "How the _hell_ have you survived on Pandora?"  
  
"Using my wits which is more than I can say for you," Fiona retorted.  
  
"Have you even used an ECHO before? It's like, step one!" Rhys snapped. He rolled his eyes. "Look, just...see the bar at the bottom?"  
  
Fiona looked down at the device, spotting it before she nodded.  
  
"Hit that at the same time you hit the one on your ECHO and it will cause a direct data transfer between the two."  
  
Fiona hesitated and he sighed.  
  
" _What_?" He asked sharply.  
  
"How do I know it won't shock me again?" She asked.  
  
"Well that just means you need to be quick, doesn't it?" He snapped.  
  
Her thumb hovered over the button on her ECHO as her foot hovered over his, taking a deep breath before she pressed down on both.  
  
There was a loud beep from both that bounced off the rocks and she tensed before a cool feminine voice declared, "Data sharing complete."  
  
Fiona glanced down at her device to see something was pinging on her ECHO.  
  
"See? Simple," Rhys declared with a smirk.  
  
She smashed down on his ECHO using her heel with a sharp crunch and she saw him wince out of the corner of her eye.  
  
"Alright, we should get moving to the first waypoint," Fiona declared as she began to exit the crevice.  
  
"Hey hey hey, LB put me in charge, _I'll_ say when we can go," Rhys declared with a firm look in his eyes that just made her snicker a little.  
  
"Well then Hyperion, can we leave or what?" She asked as she watched him struggle to get to his feet. He swayed for a moment before he glanced at her. "Well, I'm waiting...what's the plan?"  
  
"We'll go to the first waypoint," he grumbled and she gave him a fake smile.  
  
"Wow, what a _brilliant_ idea!"  
  
"Can you untie me please?" Rhys asked as he approached her. She only cocked an eyebrow and he sighed. "It'll be a lot faster getting there if I'm not tied up."  
  
She only glanced down at his arms before she shook her head.  
  
"Nope. Let's go, don't want the Skags finding us," Fiona declared as she forced him to walk ahead.  
  
She heard Rhys begin to mutter angrily as she followed, the gun trained towards the centre of his back.

 

  
  
_"And you're certain she was here?"_  
  
_The man scratched the back of his neck._  
  
_"Yeah, saw her go into some hut._ Guy _was in there too, arrived a few hours ago. Strange looking, too, covered head to toe in some suit."_  
  
_"And you didn't see where she went?"_  
  
_The man shook his head emphatically._  
  
_"Must of crawled out through the back."_  
  
_"Well, let's hope for both our sakes she didn't go too far."_  
  
_The man blanched at the tone, already certain of the intention._  
  
_"What use is some Vault Hunter to you anyways?" The man asked boldly._  
  
_"That's not your concern, now is it?"_  
  
_The sharpness of their tone, not to mention the pistol at their hip made the man take a step back._  
  
_"I guess not."_  
  
_"Well, it was a pleasure doing business with you," the person said as they dropped a few bills into the man's palm._  
  
_"What, can't afford more?" The man asked in disgust and the person bristled._  
  
_"You're lucky I'm not shooting you instead."_  
  
_The person turned on their heel and left, the pistol smacking against their hip as they walked._  
  
_The man gulped audibly._  
  
_If he never had to see them again he'd be a happy man._  
  
_He looked down at the bills and grinned to himself._  
  
_He wore that grin as the shots rang out and he collapsed to the ground, the bills clutched in his palm._


	4. Trekking Through the Desert

"What happened to your arm?"

Fiona cocked an eyebrow as she barely looked at him, though he was grateful the gun had now been slung across her back rather than pointed at his.

They'd been walking for a few hours, the Pandoran sun beating down on their backs and Fiona had elected to take off her jacket, wrapping it around her waist.

Rhys' eyes had widened as he took in the scars that adorned her left arm, a rather nasty set of marks that looked like some creature had tried to tear her arm off and failed.

"Why do you care?" She asked sharply and he shrugged.

"Just curious," Rhys replied. "Well that and we don't have much else to do besides talk while we're walking through this heated slice of hell..."

"Can't stand the silence?" She asked with a smirk and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm not exactly asking you to open up some of your dark secrets here," Rhys replied sharply. "I mean, what? Skag got too close, nearly ripped your arm off?"

Fiona did not respond at first and he huffed out a sigh of frustration.

"Look, fine, if you don't want to talk about it I could care..."

"It was near one of the Vaults, alright?" Fiona replied, refusing to meet his eyes. "Didn't watch my back and a few psychos jumped me."

Rhys gave out a low whistle.

"And they did that to you? Sheesh, remind me never to cross a Pandoran psycho," Rhys murmured.

"It's not usually the psychos you have to worry about," she muttered as she looked at him pointedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was that supposed to be directed at me?" Rhys asked.

“Oh no, _not in the slightest_ ,” she replied sarcastically.

“Okay, I know you’re probably still livid about the Handsome Jack thing…” Rhys began and she scoffed.

“Oh no, not at all. I’m just _so glad_ to be walking through the desert with the man that was so motivated by **a damn crush** that he was willing to turn his back on his friends when it came down to it…” Fiona replied sharply.

“Would you be happier then knowing it all went to shit?” Rhys asked angrily. “That within a few minutes of me taking the deal he decided he was going to kill me and shove an immortality suit into my body? Make me his little meat puppet?”

She finally met his eyes then, crossing her arms as she stopped.

“Meat puppet?” she asked skeptically. “I’m sorry, wasn’t that what you were before?”

Rhys sputtered a few times before he threw his hands up in exasperation. Well, at least, he tried to anyways. His hands still tightly bound, he threw up his arms he wobbled and then nearly tipped over, righting himself just before he crashed into the dirt.

“The point is at the end of the day Jack betrayed me,” Rhys retorted. “I trusted him in the end and he decided to use that to his advantage.”

“Sounds familiar,” Fiona pointed out and Rhys huffed out a vexed sigh.

“I’m just saying it’s not as black and white as you think it is,” Rhys continued.

Fiona checked the time on the ECHO and sighed to herself.

“We should probably look for somewhere to hide out, the sun’s going down in half an hour,” Fiona declared, and she swore she heard Rhys mutter something to himself along the lines of ‘thank the Eridians’.

 

“We should take shifts through the night, make sure no one tries to steal anything,” Fiona declared after they had set up camp, the fire crackling and popping, half-expecting Rhys to protest at the idea.

He nodded instead, giving her a small smile before he held out his arms.

“No no no, I’m taking the first shift, you can stay tied up until then,” Fiona declared as she prepped the Conference Call gun, settling herself on a nearby rock. She smiled to herself as she heard Rhys grumble before he sat himself in front of the fire, warming his hands a little.

Her eyes scanned the distance as she heard Rhys shift and groan behind her, causing her to roll her eyes as he went still.

How the hell she had ended up in this kind of situation she didn’t even want to acknowledge. Trapped through the desert with the man that she was pretty sure was going to shoot her in the back once his shift arrived.

The thought caused her to turn around to glance at him, noticing his back was to her and she lifted up the gun experimentally, aiming it at his back.

It would be so easy, she knew that. To just press the trigger, let the bullets lodge themselves into his frame. All this crap with Loader Bot be damned. Hell, she didn’t even know if he was telling the truth about _that_.

For all she knew he could just be leading her across the desert in order to turn her in for the bounty.

The firelight flickered across his back and she saw thick blue lines curl around the nape of his neck, though they looked too clunky to be like a Siren’s. Not that she really had any experience with Sirens herself, but she’d heard of them.

In particular the ones that went on to become Vault Hunters.

If she was being honest she sort of revered and feared Lilith at the same time. Anyone that could face Handsome Jack and come out alive deserved some form of respect. Hell, anyone that had lived to see both the Vaults of Pandora open deserved their own day of reverence.

Still didn’t help her feel less terrified about what would happen if the two happened to meet in front of a Vault.

She watched as Rhys lay on his back, his eyes open as he stared up at the stars. He rubbed his eyes a few times before he puffed out a sigh, the breath curling from his mouth like smoke for a few moments. She pulled her jacket around her tighter, though from the looks of it Rhys appeared to be barely shivering.

She made sure to click on the safety before she stood up, approaching Rhys. He turned his head to look at her and wore a small smile. The smile faded away just as rapidly as it had appeared as she proceeded to drop the gun onto his chest, landing with a soft thump as he let out a sharp whoosh of air.

“If you’re not planning on sleeping then you might as well join me on guard duty,” Fiona declared as she prepped the gun hidden in her sleeve. She knelt down beside him, easily untying the rope around his wrists, her eyes automatically drawn to the clunky markings on his left arm.

He rubbed his wrists for a few moments as he sat up, muttering as he picked up the gun and shakily rose to his feet. He went to the rock where Fiona had been sitting, plopping himself down on it as he examined the gun.

“Please tell me you know how to fire that thing,” Fiona declared as she approached him, and he gave her a cocky sort of grin before he fiddled with the gun.

“I can assure you that...” he began as the gun went off, causing a small object in the distance to tip over. “Uh, I meant to do that.”

Fiona rolled her eyes before she sat down beside him, taking the gun from his hands. She clicked on the safety and then handed it back to him.

“How about if the bandits show up, you just sit there and look pretty and I’ll make sure to take them out?” Fiona declared and he pouted.

Which _really_ should have not looked as attractive as it did framed in the firelight.

“I do know how to fire a gun,” he protested, and he sounded so much like a petulant child that she snorted.

“Look, I picked the area because it didn’t look like it had much activity, I’m sure we have nothing to worry about,” Fiona replied. “But if anyone comes I’ll make sure to ask them if they have a stun baton you can use.”

Rhys rolled his eyes at that and she grinned a little.

“Har har har,” he replied.

 

Fiona rested her head against her jacket as she slept, Rhys having taken the next shift as the moon lazily crawled across the sky.

It had been a quiet night so far, no bandits or Skags in sight, and Rhys was a little relieved at that.

He glanced back to look at Fiona, a small smile on his features before he stopped himself.

He needed to focus on getting them the Gortys pieces, not her. He couldn’t afford to be distracted. After all, he had his own…timeline? Universe? _Something_ to get back to.

Which happened to include a nice bed, running water and a Fiona that didn’t want to rip his head off.

He stretched with a yawn, his shirt riding up to expose the blocky tattoos on his stomach and as he scratched it lazily he swore he felt a faint warmth to them. He rolled up his sleeve and traced the thick blocks on his arm more for something to do then for any interest.

It was a nervous habit of his, actually. Whenever he got edgy or even just bored he would find himself tracing the blocks of blue with his metallic fingertips, the cool metal oddly comforting against the warm skin.

Vaughn used to tease him for constantly wearing down the fabric on the left arm of his shirts due to the constant rubbing, not that his best friend ever really knew the reason why he did it. He just assumed like everyone else they were tattoos like the one on his neck rather than birth marks.

Back then they had looked like white tattoos, only catching the light ever so often, easy to conceal due to his pale skin tone.

But after the Vault of the Traveller had opened he had awoken one morning at the Atlas facility to see they had flooded sapphire blue. He had always meant to find someone to tell him what they meant, but then the whole mess with the Stranger and Gortys and Fiona happened, and, well, it was impossible to find time to slip away to find out what he needed to.

He sometimes wondered if he was a Siren, until he remembered he had no powers to speak of. Not to mention he was biologically male, so _that_ ruled out that possibility.

He heard Fiona shift behind him and rolled down his sleeve automatically, turning to see that she was snoring softly. He chuckled to himself before he went back to scanning the distance.

 

_The man rolled around in his bunk as he heard his ECHO begin to beep incessantly. The sound bounced through the empty room and he groaned loudly before he rolled over and answered it._

_“Hello?” he asked sleepily, yawning loudly._

_“Got a job for you Perseus,” the male voice on the other end declared roughly. “Got ourselves two runners, we need you to bring them back alive to Cronus.”_

_He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he sat up._

_“How’s the pay?” he asked as he stretched._

_“Decent. Apparently if you do well you might be hired again on a more permanent basis, possibly set you up there.”_

_“And I thought I told you not to give me jobs where I’d be working under the control of a corporation.”_

_The man on the other end of the line chuckled._

_“You’re good kid, but not that good. You can’t afford to not take this one.”_

_He looked at the coordinates and sighed a little. Great, they were already a day ahead of him. Then again, he had worked in worse circumstances._

_“Fine.”_

_The man on the other end hung up._

_He sighed to himself before he slipped out of bed, padding over to the trunk located across from his bunk, opening the latch before he pulled up the lid to reveal a familiar set of loose cloaks and light fabrics._

_He pulled them out and set them on the floor, his eyes for a moment catching a flash of yellow at the bottom of the case._

_He snapped the lid shit and locked the trunk before he could dwell on it._

_He slipped on the worn clothes easily, making sure to pull up the hood of the cloak so that it would conceal his features before he went to the wall that was currently displaying his guns proudly. He hesitated for a few moments before he took down the sniper rifle and a pistol, strapping them both to his person as well as a few cases of bullets. He hoped he wouldn’t need to use any of them, but hey, jobs had gone wrong before and it never hurt to be prepared._

_With a sigh he picked up his provisions and banged open the door of his hut, slipping through before he closed it with his foot, the lock clicking automatically._

_Off to work he supposed._


	5. You Have Added Another Member To Your Party!

She tossed it into the dirt as Rhys looked up at her sleepily.  
  
"What's this?" He mumbled as he took in the spiky round object, blinking slowly.  
  
"Breakfast," Fiona replied as she delicately placed her own on the nearby rock. Rhys watched as she took another rock in her palm and smashed down onto the object, causing green liquid to trickle from the hole. "Just avoid the spines and you should be fine."  
  
Rhys watched in mild horror as she ripped the fruit in half, scooping out its contents with her hands as she rested it in her lap. The juice dribbled down her chin, one drop sliding down her chin, slipping down her neck as it rapidly approached her chest and Rhys felt himself stiffen a little.  
  
He sat up very quickly and crossed his legs a little. Last thing he needed was right now was, ahem, THAT happening. Not that his body seemed to be listening, his eyes intently watching the dripping juices.  
  
"What?" She asked defensively.  
  
"J-Just watching how ridiculous you look," he declared with a slight crack in his voice and she rolled her eyes.  
  
"You gonna eat yours or what?" She asked as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.  
  
"I would if I knew how to break it open," He replied as he looked at the offending object, the spikes an inky black. "What is it anyway?"  
  
"Skag fruit," Fiona retorted as she continued to eat. "And just smash it against something."  
  
Rhys tried to pick it up with his flesh hand only to drop it with a sharp yelp. Fiona cocked an eyebrow as he nursed his hand to his chest, before he picked the fruit up with his metallic hand.  
  
"Don't say a word," Rhys muttered as he smashed the side of his hand against the fruit causing it to crack open. He grinned in triumph as he pulled the halves apart, only for the scent to hit his nose. He gagged a few times as Fiona laughed.  
  
"How can you eat this?" Rhys asked as his nose wrinkled in disgust.  
  
"Carefully," she replied. "Now unless you want to starve I suggest you eat up."  
  
Rhys grimaced as he picked up some of the goop inside, the green innards sticking to his fingers as he tentatively brought it to his mouth.  
  
He slipped his fingers inside his mouth and yanked them out just as quickly, chewing for a few moments. He swallowed and gave a little shudder.  
  
"Well?" Fiona asked.  
  
"Texture isn't that great...but the taste could be worse," Rhys admitted as he began to eat.  
  
Fiona fought back her laughter at how delicately he was trying to eat it, his tongue darting out between his lips to catch any stray juices. His brow was furrowed in concentration and she smiled to herself.  
  
"Where did you find this anyways?" Rhys asked.  
  
"Not that difficult. They're technically skag droppings," Fiona replied.  
  
Rhys' face contorted in horror as he shoved the fruit away, gagging a few times as he kept muttering to himself.  
  
Fiona began to cackle.  
  
"I'm kidding," she declared between laughs. "They grow like potatoes, you have to dig them out from the ground."  
  
Rhys picked his halves up with his metal hand and rolled his eyes.  
  
"They're basically weeds out here, doesn't take too long to find them."  
  
Rhys began to eat again, a bit cautiously now and Fiona watched as he popped two of his fingers in his mouth and suck off the juices.  
  
She felt the heat rise in her cheeks and looked up at the Pandoran sun, reminding her that they needed to get moving soon if they were to find the first pieces.  
  
She finished off her fruit and tossed aside the husks as she went to pick up the ECHO comm.  
  
"Says its only a few hours walk from here," Fiona declared as she examined the screen. "Did Loader Bot tell you what we're supposed to do after we find the first pieces?"  
  
Rhys shook his head as he ate, looking up at her to respond when he froze. She followed his gaze and turned around to see someone approaching in the distance, still too far to make out who they were.  
  
Fiona tossed the Conference Call towards Rhys as she prepped her gun.  
  
"Oomph," Rhys puffed out as he caught the gun, causing the Skag fruit to smash against his shirt. He glanced down at the green liquid and cursed as he stood up, the husks clattering into the sand. "Fiona, what the..."  
  
Fiona's eyes darted around the desert, looking for a place they could hide as the figure continued to approach.  
  
"Rhys, when I say run, you sprint as fast as those spider legs can carry you alright?" Fiona hissed.  
  
"Spider legs?" Rhys asked, slightly offended and she rolled her eyes.  
  
"Just wait for my signal alright?"  
  
"And where do you expect me to go?" Rhys asked sharply.  
  
"There has to be another crevice we could hide in somewhere..."  
  
"You mean _you don't know_?" Rhys asked, slightly panicked.  
  
Fiona opened her mouth to retort when the figure stopped a short distance from them. Fiona took in the loose clothes suitable for the desert heat and the hood pulled up to conceal their features, a thin layer of cloth covering their mouth.  
  
She tensed as she looked at the gun at their hip, her mouth opening to tell Rhys to go when they reached into their knapsack and pulled out what looked like two fresh loaves of bread. Fiona's eyes widened in shock.  
  
"Saw you digging up Skag fruit and thought you might need something a little more filling," a light English voice declared. He held them out to the pair and Fiona swore she heard Rhys groan a little.  
  
"Why are you giving us these?" Fiona asked skeptically. "Better yet, why are you following us?"  
  
The man shrugged.  
  
"We happen to be going in the same direction. And am I not allowed to be nice to weary travellers?" he asked.  
  
"This is Pandora. A person is only as nice to you as is required to allow them to shoot you in the back when you least expect it," Fiona replied bluntly. "So what is it you want in exchange?"  
  
"Nothing, besides your companionship," the man replied.  
  
"Why do you need that?" Fiona asked with a cock of her eyebrow as she crossed her arms. "Everyone knows it's easier to travel alone."  
  
"And yet you two are together," the man pointed out. "I am sure one more addition to your party will not hurt."  
  
"We're doing fine, thank you," Fiona replied sharply.  
  
"Fiona, wait..." Rhys began and she whipped around rapidly to shoot him a glare.  
  
"If you don't think I will be useful then I can assure you I know where to find more food like this," the man declared.  
  
Rhys looked extremely eager, his mouth clearly watering.  
  
"In fact, I'm more than happy to tell you there's a small town nearby that is more than willing to give food to Vault hunters such as yourselves. So long as you do a few jobs for them of course. Nothing too horrific, though."  
  
"Fiona..." Rhys whined a little. "Fresh bread...clean clothes...good food..."  
  
"We have literally only been out here for a day and a night Rhys!" She replied sharply.  
  
"I'm sorry, but we actually need to get going," Fiona declared as she motioned for Rhys to pack up their things.  
  
Rhys grumbled as he packed up their things, Fiona watching the masked man skeptically.  
  
He placed the loaves in her palm.  
  
"Consider it an incentive," he declared.  
  
He began to walk away before Fiona stopped him.  
  
"How do I know these aren't laced with something?"  
  
The man turned around and approached her. Silently he picked off a chunk, the bread crackling pleasantly to expose a white fluffy centre before he reached under the cloth over his mouth. He popped the bread into his mouth and chewed for a few moments.  
  
"Since we are headed in a similar direction anyway, you can observe me and make sure nothing happens," the man declared. He stuck out his hand, the tanned fingers long and calloused. "Deal?"  
  
She looked down at his large hand skeptically before she took it and shook it firmly.  
  
"Fine."  
  
The man looked pleased. Well, as pleased as one could with their features hidden under cloth and a thick pair of goggles.  
  
"C'mon Rhys, let's move," Fiona declared as the man handed her the loaves of bread.  
  
She looked down at them before she slipped them into her pack. She noticed the sniper rifle strung along the man's back and made sure to prep her gun in case things went south.  
  
And hey, if they did at least she might get a nice set of guns out of it.  
  
"So what's your name?" Fiona asked.  
  
"Does it matter?" The man asked as the trio walked and she tensed a little.  
  
"Seems like common courtesy," Fiona replied.  
  
The man did not respond at first, appearing to debate something internally.  
  
"Percy," he finally answered.  
  
Rhys snorted a little.  
  
"Seems fitting," he murmured. Fiona looked at him as her eyebrows shot up. "What? I mean, considering the accent and everything..."  
  
"Then shouldn't you really sound more Irish?" Percy retorted and Fiona snickered as Rhys pouted a little.  
  
Maybe this guy _could_ be useful to keep around. If only to keep her entertained.  
  
 _Even if there would be a constant risk of him shooting them in the back._


	6. Complications That Arise

Rhys sat on a nearby rock, chewing on his loaf of bread as he fiddled with the back of the ECHO comm.

Funny how something that had been branded as "able to outlast a Pandoran sand storm" could be felled by just a grain of sand, and yet here he was, blowing into the back trying to get it out.

It would not have been as much of an issue if it had not powered down in the middle of the desert, just as it appeared that they were getting close to the first Gortys pieces.

Fiona evidently either trusted Percy enough to leave him behind with Rhys or didn't trust him at all and hoped when she returned she would have one less former Hyperion on her hands.

Either way, he'd been left alone with their new companion, who at the moment was checking over his weapons with a cool efficiency that set Rhys on edge.

He automatically shifted away on the rock before he tried to get back to work.

"If it's a grain of sand blowing on it isn't going to get it out," Percy commented as he looked down the barrel of his sniper rifle. Rhys nearly slammed the ECHO down in his lap in frustration.

"Well what do you suggest then?" Rhys asked sharply as he used his ECHO eye to scan the device. Just as it stated last time, the sand grain was located "on the control panel" and he blew on it harder.

The ECHO comm was plucked from his hands and he jumped back in surprise, nearly falling off the rock as he looked up at Percy.

The other man inspected it for a few moments. He reached behind his back before he pulled out what looked like a solar panel and then attached it to the device.

"It's just a dead battery," Percy commented as he handed both objects back to Rhys. "It'll need to charge for a few hours before we can use it again."

Rhys huffed out a sigh of frustration.

"Great. That's just fantastic," he grumbled to himself as he set the ECHO on the flat surface of a rock nearby.

"What is it you're searching for exactly?" Percy asked. "After all, no one travels through this slice of hell unless they're looking for something."

"We're Vault Hunters," Rhys replied drily, more than keen to be left alone.

"Somehow I don't quite believe that," Percy replied.

"Why not?" Rhys asked sharply. To be honest he felt a little hurt. He had found and plundered a Vault after all. _Even if it had only lasted a good five minutes._

"You don't even know how to work a gun from what I can tell," Percy commented. "That or you can't be trusted with it for some reason."

He nodded into the distance.

"Is there a reason she refuses to give you one?" He asked.

"She thinks I'm going to shoot her in the back," Rhys replied a little bitterly.

"Ah. So the first one then," Percy declared.

"I know how to work a gun!" Rhys said defensively and he swore he could practically feel Percy smirking behind that cloth mask and goggles.

Percy stepped back towards his guns, picking up the pistol and tossing it at Rhys.

Rhys caught it with a dexterity that surprised himself.

"Fine then," Percy replied as he reached into his pack and pulled out a familiar spiky fruit. He motioned for Rhys to move and he complied. Rhys watched the other man set down the fruit on the rock he had been sitting on, before Percy placed the charging ECHO a safe distance away.

He stood beside Rhys.

"Shoot that then," Percy declared.

Rhys aimed the gun and took a shot, missing the fruit entirely and causing the bullet to whizz into the sand with a sharp plop.

He grumbled to himself before he tried again.

Rhys squared his shoulders and aimed the gun only to feel a pair of hands press down on his arms.

"You're trying to shoot, not flap away like a bird," Percy commented drily. "Relax your arms and stand with your legs a little further apart."

Rhys tried to do so and felt a slight kick to one of his shins causing him to spread his legs a little wider.

"And use one hand to cradle the grip," Percy continued. "Don't want the gun to smack you in the face when it recoils. Even if that would be vastly entertaining for me."

Rhys shot him a glare which made Percy chuckle.

"Tense your arms..."

Rhys tried to do so.

"No, not that tense," Percy continued with a laugh. "Hold on..."

Rhys felt the other man's hands push down on his arms again, though Rhys swore he felt them linger.

Percy coughed awkwardly as he removed his hands.

"Do you know what works for me?" He asked and Rhys nodded.

"Cradle your gun like you would cradle a lover," he continued quietly. "Tight enough to let them know you're never going to drop them, but loose enough that you're not awakening any kinks."

Rhys snorted at this before he took aim, this time the bullet grazing against the fruit.

"Try again," Percy ordered and Rhys took a deep breath.

He went through all the steps and aimed the gun.

A clean hole emerged in the centre of the fruit as the bullet whizzed through and Rhys crowed in triumph.

"I'm surprised your girlfriend didn't teach you to shoot," Percy commented.

"Not my girlfriend," Rhys replied automatically as he relaxed his arms.

Percy seemed intrigued by this and Rhys laughed a little.

"I think she would rather shoot my head off," Rhys confessed.

"Any particular reason?" Percy asked and Rhys shrugged.

_Too many to list. Most of them which I don't blame her for._

"We just don't tend to see eye-to-eye on most things," Rhys confessed. "It would be a disaster."

Percy nodded.

"So why do you want me to know how to fire a gun?" Rhys asked in interest. "Wouldn't it be better if you knew there was one less person capable of shooting you in the back?"

Percy chuckled at this.

"I'll take my chances," he replied as he took the gun from Rhys’ hands. “Though to be honest I don’t think I have too much to worry about.”

“Because you think I’m inept?” Rhys took a jab at himself.

Percy slipped the pistol back into its holster before he responded.

“Because I’m not intending to give you a good reason to want a bullet in my skull.”

 

_The ECHO comm had switched to stand-by mode by the time night had fallen, the intention to keep searching fading with the sinking sun. They’d been able to walk a few miles after Fiona had returned, but it was already starting to feel like the trio was going in circles._

_Percy checked his own ECHO, relieved to see they were still on course before he slipped the device back into his knapsack._

_Percy set up his sniper rifle, setting in on the ground before he glanced back at his two companions. He smiled to himself as he noticed that the pair had fallen asleep on each other, in particular how Rhys was drooling on Fiona’s jacket._

_His eyes remained on Rhys for a few moments longer then he intended and he sighed to himself, checking the scope of the rifle before he leaned back a little in the surrounding darkness._

_He couldn’t afford distractions, not at this point, and yet…he felt the familiar warmness bubble in his chest as he thought of mismatched eyes and a magnetic grin._

_It wasn’t the fact he was attracted to the younger man that troubled him. In fact, he welcomed it with open arms. Felt nice to be reminded from time to time, that despite everything he had done, there was still a shred of what he once was remaining there._

_It was that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Not without risking exposing what he was, and no man, despite how attractive he was…with bright eyes that shone as he clutched Percy’s gun, his grin so radiant that Percy couldn’t help but smile behind his mask in response…_

_There was a scuffling and Percy snapped to attention to see a young Skag wandering nearby. It glanced up at him for a moment and he gave it a curt nod, which it almost seemed to return before it ran off. He frowned before he saw a pale blue light glow out of the corner of his vision. He turned to face it and froze._

_Rhys’ head lolled as the patterns on his chest were glowing brightly, chunks of blue that seemed to pulsate with his heartbeat. He gave a soft snore as Percy checked through the sniper scope and then stood up, approaching the younger man in complete fascination._

_He’d heard of it before, and yet…he’d never been able to see it. Too many years wandering from one end of Pandora to the other, never stopping long enough to see what he had only heard of in rumours. Rumours that at first seemed like old wives’ tales told to young children sitting in their grandmother’s lap, ones that Percy had scoffed out._

_But this…this was proof it was no tale._

_Rhys rested his head against Fiona’s shoulder and Percy tensed as the markings’ light began to fade until all that remained was moonlight streaming across shapes of dull blue._

_Percy sighed to himself._

_ This was certainly a complication.  _


	7. Surprising Revelations

Granted, she should have known not to underestimate Pandora for madness considering how long she had lived on its surface…but still, she had to admit to herself there was no way to predict that the first pieces of Gortys would be located in the stomach of a young, sleeping Rakk Hive.

 She could take pride in the fact she had every damn right to underestimate Rhys, though. Hell, the last time she had seen him he’d looked like he was ready to trip over himself every few minutes, those too-long legs being a nuisance more than an advantage.

Yet she _swore_ in the midst of their little run in he seemed to be darting everywhere, his eyes bright…

She wiped the blood from her neck and flung it to the ground with a noise of disgust, glancing up to see that Percy was cleaning the bayonet of his sniper rifle with what looked like part of an old shirt.

Rhys was collapsed against a rock, breathing heavily as he tried to bandage his hand and wrist to no avail. He clearly had no clue what he was doing, and in other circumstances Fiona would have chided him for it.

Except this time she couldn’t muster the will to, and that angered her a little. Because she actually owed the bastard for something now, and she _knew_ he was going to gloat about it at every opportunity. Smug words curling from a handsome mouth, currently set in a grimace as he kept trying and failing to wrap the cloth around his hand.

She rolled her eyes and stood up, wiping some of the excess blood off her hand before she approached him. He barely glanced up at her as she knelt down in front of him, though those mismatched eyes met hers in a glare as she took his hand and jerked it towards her.

He opened his mouth to protest as she expertly unwound the cloth, setting it aside before her fingers went over the delicate bones in his hand. His mouth slipped closed as her fingertips went over every inch of his hand, searching for the bones she had certainly heard crack as he had decided it would be best to take down a Rakk by _punching it in the side of the head_.

He gave a sharp cry as she set the bones, making sure to hold them in place as she began to wrap the cloth around his hand, not meeting his eyes as he watched her move down to his wrist. He jerked a little as she touched his wrist, and Fiona swore for a moment she saw the clunky blue marks spark a bright blue as she did so.

“You seem like you’ve done this before,” Rhys gasped as she bound his wrist with the makeshift bandages.

She made sure to set the bandages properly before she responded, the small smile blooming on her features just at the memory of it.

“Needed to learn. Sasha was the kind of kid to get into fights every chance she got,” Fiona admitted with a chuckle, remembering the bloodied knuckles and the sheepish grins as Sasha held her small hands out to her sister. “I think at some point Felix just got sick of her coming home beaten and bruised all the time so he just bought her a gun. Suppose he’s to blame for her obsession with them.”

“Sounds like a wonderful childhood,” he commented wryly. “So sorry I couldn’t experience it.”

“Some of us couldn’t afford a better one,” she replied sharply as she stood up, all but dropping Rhys’ wrist into his lap, her anger returning full force as she was once again reminded just how much of an ass he was. “Try not to move it too much.”

Fiona walked over to the ECHO comm and checked it for the second location, her mouth set in a thin line as she felt Rhys’ eyes on her back. She typed in the coordinates and checked them in comparison to where they were, hissing to herself as she realized they were on the completely opposite end of the desert.

She pulled up the map on the device, searching for a Catch-A-Ride station (and trying not to linger too long on the dull ache she felt rise in her chest) as she stood there.

A sharp cry pierced through the air and she turned towards the source of the sound to see that a rather large, rather angry Rakk Hive was galloping towards them, screaming bloody murder and all the blood in her body ran ice cold.

Percy was prepping his sniper rifle as fast as he could, clicking everything into place as the Rakk drew closer and closer. She glanced down to where Rhys was leaning against the rock, her eyes widening as she noticed his absence.

“Where the hell is Rhys?” Fiona called out to Percy, who shook his head rapidly as he took aim at the Rakk.

“Not really the most pressing concern at this point!” he replied sharply, taking a few shots that seemed to bounce off the creature’s hide.

“Rhys, I swear to the Eridians if we survive this I am going to skin you,” she growled as she took a few shots of her own. _Of course_ the damn coward would run away, probably with both the Gortys pieces too. She _knew_ she shouldn’t have even begun to trust him, once again he was just proving everything she thought to be accurate.

She should have just run off with the pieces herself when she had the chance. Surely she could have stomached a few moments of sharp pain to bind the two pieces together, and besides, if Rhys had been telling the truth Loader Bot would probably have been more than happy to see her.

 The Rakk Hive charged, its footfalls causing the sand around its feet to disperse in thick clouds as the ground trembled.

Bit too late for that now though.

Well, she had always expected she was going to die on Pandora, she just…she had hoped it would be at least somewhat peaceful at the end of the day. Not this situation where she was likely to have her bones stripped of all flesh until all that remained would be a pale white skeleton.

Then again, she guessed it could be worse.

A sharp piercing sound travelled through the air and Fiona clutched her ears as they rung painfully, kneeling down as her eyes darted around for the source of the noise. It seemed to rattle through her skull and she gritted her teeth, her vision blurring as she saw a tall figure dart towards the Rakk.

It seemed just as disoriented as she was, making strange little cries of pain as the figure running towards it picked up some long bar that she expected had fallen off a vehicle passing through here. With no hesitation they leapt at the Rakk, driving the pole clean through its skull.

As the blackness clouded her vision from the sheer pain she was experiencing, she swore she saw half of their body glow sapphire. With a thud her head collided with the sand as she allowed the darkness to take her for a few moments, eager to escape the pain.

 

_Percy gritted his teeth as it felt like his brain was trying to break out of his skull, the bullets still flying from his sniper rifle as he saw out of the corner of his eye a tall figure shoot past him._

_Percy watched in astonishment as the figure picked up a long pole and charged towards the Rakk, moving with a level of precision and ferocity that was not human. The Rakk was crying out in clear pain as the figure leapt onto its head, driving the pole clean through its head with a sharp crack. The Rakk collapsed with a thud, the sand around it billowing up in a thick cloud as the figure on its head panted heavily. The sharp ringing faded within moments and Percy shuddered._

_As the dust cleared, Percy saw the figure turn to look at Fiona and him, their eyes sharp and practically shimmering like topaz and amber as their left arm blazed a neon blue. It was the other arm that caused his eyes to widen in shock, the cold metal gleaming in the Pandoran sun._

_Rhys looked absolutely feral, his teeth gnashing together as he ripped the pole out of the Rakk’s skull with a sickening whoosh, leaping down from the Rakk’s head before he stalked towards the pair, the pole clutched in his bandaged palm._

_He appeared to falter halfway, the pole dropping from his hand as he shuddered violently and collapsed to his knees. He gritted his teeth as he curled forward, giving out a sharp cry before he collapsed into the sand, the markings on his chest that had been glowing through his shirt fading in brightness with each passing moment._

_He winced out a sigh before he began to dry heave, something bright and violet leaking out of the corner of his mouth after a few moments. He closed his eyes tightly before he opened them again, now back to their normal hue as he began to shake again._

_“Rhys?” Percy murmured cautiously, slipping the sniper rifle across his back. The younger man nodded weakly as he tried to look up at Percy, only to close them again as he moaned._

_Wordlessly Percy approached the other man, helping him sit up as Rhys continued to make small little moans and groans._

_“What the hell just happened?” he gasped as he ran a hand through his hair, groaning as he shifted his hand in the bandages._

_Percy glanced over at Fiona, making sure she was still passed out before he spoke lowly._

_“Rhys, what happened before I found you two?” he asked._

_Rhys managed a weak chuckle._

_“Do you want the long version or the short one?” Rhys asked weakly before he coughed. He glanced over at Percy to see Percy was watching him a little too intently for comfort and he shifted away. “Why do you want to know?”_

_“Have you heard of Eridium?” Percy asked hurriedly, and Rhys nodded. Of course he had, Jack had gone absolutely mental drilling for it back when he was running Hyperion. No one really knew what it was meant to do exactly, just that bringing it to Jack meant the chance of a respectable promotion. Maybe your own office with a decent view. “Have you ever touched it?”_

_Rhys’ eyebrows rose in confusion at that statement, the words on the tip of his tongue that no one was careless enough to touch Eridium unless they wished for a long, painful death either at the hands of Jack or when the radiation finally seeped into your pores and finished you off for good. Or, you know, if you were a Siren._

**_The casket_ ** _. Back in the Vault of the Traveller **, he had touched the casket.** _

_He nodded a few times and Percy swore under his breath in what sounded like awe._

_“Why?” Rhys asked hesitantly and Percy gave a short, hysterical sort of giggle, not responding at first. “I’m…I’m not a **Siren** or something, am I?” _

_Percy looked at him and Rhys swore he could feel him smiling under the cloth that covered his mouth._

_“You’re better. Rhys, have you ever heard of a **Daimon**?” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so the explanation for Rhys' markings begins, hehe....


	8. What's a Daimon?

Fiona began to awaken and Percy gave Rhys a warning look.

"She can't know about this," Percy declared sharply. "Not until we get your abilities under control."

"But know about what?" Rhys hissed just as sharply as Fiona sat up and rubbed her head.

"I promise I'll explain everything later, but in the meantime, promise me you won't say a word about this," Percy retorted.

Rhys looked at Fiona before he shook his head.

"I can't do that Percy," Rhys replied as he rose to his feet shakily.

"And what are you going to say to her then?" Percy inquired. "You just found out today, how are you going to explain it?"

"Well it would help if you told me what..." Rhys retorted as Fiona walked towards them.

"Are they gone?" Fiona asked as she rubbed her temples.

"Who?" Percy asked before Rhys could respond.

"The freaky...alien...thing that saved our asses," Fiona replied. "Even if it did give us these damn headaches...."

"Well actually...." Rhys began.

"I think so, they disappeared pretty quickly," Percy interrupted with a shrug and Rhys gave him a cold glare. "Isn't that right Rhys? I mean, you did show up after Fiona passed out....”

Rhys glared at him, the truth on the tip of his tongue before he stopped himself.

Because Percy was right. What _could_ he tell Fiona? That he suddenly went mental as he tried to get to the Conference Call in order to help them take down the Rakk, felt everything tense before it felt like his body was no longer his own? That it happened _just_ as he swore he heard Fiona screaming? How everything seemed to slow down as he ran towards the beast, picking up a metal pole and spinning it in his hands before he leapt onto its head? _The strange satisfaction of hearing metal meet bone_? The fact that as he ran back to Fiona and Percy, he only saw Percy as another target?

Rhys nodded mutely.

"Too bad, would've liked to give them a kiss or something for saving our lives," Fiona commented as she checked her pistol, not noticing how Rhys sputtered as his face went a little red.

"You'd kiss an alien?" Rhys teased weakly and she laughed.

"Hell, probably would kiss you if you had done it," Fiona declared as she slipped her gun back into her sleeve. "You know, if you hadn't run away and tried to save your own ass..."

"I was trying to get to a gun!" Rhys protested.

Fiona picked up the Conference Call and threw it at his chest, her eyebrows raising as he caught it easily.

"Here. Found you one," she replied with all the mock sweetness she could muster before she turned to Percy. "So, what's the plan of action for you then?"

"Me?" Percy asked in surprise.

"Well our next stop is the opposite end of the desert and you told us you're trying to get to the nearest town," Fiona replied matter-of-factly as she crossed her arms. "Wouldn't make sense for you to join us..."

"Well, err...." Percy began as he looked at Rhys pleadingly.

Rhys debated for a moment just shrugging at him, before he remembered what Percy had said.

**_I'll tell you more later._ **

And call Rhys whatever you liked, but he was keen to know exactly what a Daimon was.

He sighed a little.

"Percy..."

Percy's ECHO comm pinged a few times and the trio looked at it with sudden interest. Percy glanced at it for a moment before he looked up at them.

"Change of plans," he murmured quickly. "Turns out I've been hired to go to Solace."

"Solace?" Rhys asked in confusion.

"Sort of like Sanctuary, only grounded and not so, ahhh, military-based," Fiona explained.

Rhys had heard of Sanctuary, hell, everyone on Helios knew about the last bastion of resistance to the once great Handsome Jack.

Rhys pondered for a moment if they would revere him there for finally getting rid of Jack for good.

"Why would they need you in Solace?" Fiona asked, suspicion lacing every syllable. "It's pretty abandoned, and there's nothing there now except a few guns for trade and a Catch-a-Ride..."

Her words faded at the last few words, her chest beginning to hurt as she remembered its former proprietor. _Poor Scooter_.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Percy replied with a shrug. "C'mon, we should try to get there before night falls..."

Fiona hesitated before she looked at the coordinates. Solace was a good day's journey from where they were supposed to go and to waste time meant having to keep Rhys around for a little longer.

A prospect she did not like in the slightest.

But they were getting tired, and hungry. And who knew? Perhaps someone would be able to give them a decent meal once they arrived there.

"Sounds like a plan."

 

Fiona had wasted no time going to find them some food once they had arrived in the town, leaving Percy alone with Rhys in some abandoned hut.

"Alright, so what the hell am I?" Rhys hissed out quickly.

"Impatient," Percy replied with a small chuckle.

Rhys rolled his eyes.

"Okay, so, Daimons are like Sirens, Rhys. Born with their abilities, but unlike Sirens, a Daimon needs to be triggered. In your case, you touched something laced with Eridium, and it in turn activated your powers."

"Which are _what_ exactly?"

Percy chuckled nervously.

"No one knows. You're technically supposed to only be the stuff of legend. Based on what happened with the Rakk though...I'd place my money on them…err, you…being very, very similar to a Vault Guardian."

"You mean like the monsters that come out of the Vault?" Rhys asked in horror. "The big, scary things with the claws and the stone and the ohhhh God _I'm not going to turn into one of them am I_?"

Percy laughed as he clasped Rhys' shoulder for a moment, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Vault Guardian, not Vault Monster," he clarified. "They're basically these tall, thin creatures that can move abnormally fast and possess advanced weapons skills. Horrible things to come up against in a fight..."

Percy shuddered to himself.

"You've fought one?" Rhys asked in surprise.

"More than one, and they nearly killed me enough times that I hoped to never see one again as long as I lived..."

Rhys' mouth fell open in awe.

"That's...that's kind of awesome," Rhys replied and Percy looked almost like he was blushing under all that cloth. "So how do you know about Daimons considering up until today I had no clue they existed?"

Percy looked uncomfortable for a moment, fiddling with his pistol as refused to look at Rhys.

"A-are you one?" Rhys breathed and Percy scoffed.

"No...I just had the very, very _glorious_ experience of being in close contact with one," he replied almost bitterly. "Not that I knew what he was at the time, of course. Hell, I don't even think _he_ knew himself."

Percy took a deep breath before he continued.

"I've known two in my life. Both dead now, but..." Percy began before he swallowed. "Both...both of them went mad eventually."

Rhys swallowed at this as his blood ran cold.

"Well, one of them was slightly off his rocker to begin with, but...he came in contact with the Eridium and he just...lost it. Like it helped to poison his mind. He loved it though. He was brilliant to begin with, but the Eridium helped to enhance that."

Percy shook his head.

"Came in contact with it once and it all just went to ruins from that point."

"How...how did he die?" Rhys asked shakily.

Percy snorted at this.

"Hubris," he replied cryptically as Fiona stepped into the doorway, some food cradled in her arms. Percy fell silent as she placed the food in their laps, giving him a look that radiated suspicion before she plopped down beside Rhys.

"So it turns out the Catch-a-Ride is still functional so we can use that to get to the next location," Fiona murmured to Rhys as Percy seemed to just stare at the food.

"And what about Percy?" Rhys asked.

"What about him? He needs to stay in the town, he told us that himself," Fiona replied.

"Don't you think it _might_ be a bit more useful to have an expert sniper around in case things go wrong?"

Rhys reasoned and Fiona cast Percy a small glance.

"Rhys, the less people we have the better," Fiona replied. "Loader Bot told you he only needed us two. And frankly, if we get the Vault open again I don't want it to end with some guy putting two bullets into our skulls before he claims the riches for himself."

Rhys scoffed.

"He wouldn't do that!" He protested.

"How you know that Rhys?" She asked sharply. "In case you didn't realize, we barely know him. We're lucky he didn't try to take the first pieces from us as soon as we got them..."

"He might still be able to help us," Rhys replied. "Besides, he seems like a decent person."

"You're only saying that because he keeps making eyes at you," Fiona replied as she rolled her eyes. "We all know you adore the attention."

"Excuse me?" Rhys asked before he laughed sharply. "Is that really what this is about?"

He smirked a little.

"Never knew you cared..."

"Don't flatter yourself Hyperion," she replied sharply. "I'm just thinking about what's best for us."

"Us?" Rhya asked, waggling his eyebrows a little and despite herself she smiled a little. She quickly masked it with a scowl and stood up.

"Need to get more food?" Percy asked.

"Rhys and I actually were planning to get some supplies, do you want us to get you anything?" Fiona asked as she began to gather her things. She looked at Rhys pointedly before he sighed and stood up. He picked up the Conference Call and his ECHO.

"I'm fine," Percy reassured them and Fiona nodded as she led Rhys out of the hut.

"So what supplies do we need to get?"

Fiona glanced around the town before she responded.

"Nothing, I already got everything we need," she muttered. "When I say run, you just follow me alright?"

"You're kidding me right?" Rhys asked with a small smile she did not return. "We...we're not just ditching him Fiona!"

"We're not ditching him, he said he needed to stay here anyways," Fiona replied quickly. "We're just...leaving him a little earlier..."

"Fiona, what did you do?" Rhys asked sharply.

"Nothing! I just...I don't trust him alright? There is something very strange going on with him...."

"Yes, ‘cause your intuition is always spot on..." Rhys replied as he rolled his eyes.

"Just...look, I may not really trust you, but I trust him even less. And I don't want to stick around for my hunch to be proven correct."

"I'm not leaving without him, Fiona," Rhys retorted. "Because I trust him a whole lot more than I trust you at this moment to be doing the right thing."

Fiona looked down at her gun and sighed.

"I'm sorry, if it's any consolation," Fiona declared before she went to smack him in the side of the head with the butt of her pistol, only for Rhys to smoothly yank it from her hands, the markings on his chest glowing faintly.

"Not this time Fi," he declared.

Fiona ran through the scenarios in her head, trying to find the best one before she settled on one in particular.

Granted, it wasn't one of her _finer_ plans. But they were running out of time and the sooner they got away from Percy she suspected the better.

Her hand traced over his collarbone before her fingertips rested on the back of his neck. She turned his face towards her before she pulled his head down towards hers, the puzzlement on his face almost endearing before she pressed her mouth to his.

He gave a little cry of surprise as she deepened the kiss, though within moments she felt his hands press into the small of her back.

She ignored the fluttering in her stomach as she pulled back a little, their mouths breaking apart before she smacked her forehead against his. There was a sharp conking noise before she felt him slump in her arms and she rested his surprisingly-light frame against her shoulder.

She dragged him through the town quickly as she approached the Catch-a-Ride, easily getting herself a car before she slung Rhys into the back seats and tied up his wrists.

She climbed in the front, putting her belongings in the back with Rhys. She smiled to herself as the car started with a satisfying rumble, inputting the coordinates into the vehicle's ECHO.

She put the car into drive and shot off into the desert.


	9. Chaos and Confessions

_“You want me to let them run off?”_

_He could detect the tone of the sentence was incredulous to say the least, and he typed back a response rapidly._

_“They will find the pieces much faster if you are not there,” he replied. “If you put the tracker on them like you were supposed to, it shouldn’t take too long to find them again.”_

_He hit send and the response was close to instantaneous._

_“So what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” Percy replied, the sharpness in every letter and the man cocked an eyebrow._

_“Be patient. I’m sure you can find other jobs in Solace to do in the meantime,” he replied before he hit send and shut off the ECHO comm._

_He closed his eyes and rubbed them tiredly as he sighed._

_He knew he couldn’t afford to be wasting money like this, not when the company was only starting out. The accountants were already sending him reports insisting that he needed to start selling more products or the company would fall apart before it had even made a name for itself._

_“It’ll all work out,” a cool voice declared pleasantly. He opened his eyes as a young woman stood in front of him, her hair plaited on one side of her head._

_“You keep saying that and yet…” the man began before he gave a small groan of frustration._

_She perched on the edge of his desk, crossing her legs as she turned to face him and for a moment he was struck at how young she looked. He sometimes forgot she was barely in her twenties, mostly due to the fact she possessed a knowledge and wisdom beyond that of any twenty-two he had met in the past decade._

_Then again, her being an AI may have had something to do with that._

_He felt a strange prickle by his port, looking down to see her hand was resting on his metal one before she tried to squeeze it, causing the hand to contract a little as her fingers rested on the back of his hand._

_“It will all work out,” she reassured him, a small smile on her lips. “I can promise you that. You just have to trust me.”_

_He wished he had her confidence._

Fiona found the piece within hours of them leaving Solace, grinning to herself as she placed it with the others.

Rhys shot her a cold look and she just rolled her eyes as she settled in the front seat of the car. She booted up the ECHO, sending Loader Bot a quick message about them going to find the final piece, feeling Rhys’ eyes digging into the back of her head.

She elected to ignore it, sitting back as she waited for Loader Bot to respond, tapping her fingertips against the side of the car as she could practically hear Rhys stewing. She sighed before she turned on the radio, looking for a decent station before her ears caught a familiar tune.

It played for a few moments before Rhys spoke.

“So was it your sister who taught you that move?” Rhys asked sourly and Fiona laughed a little.

“I taught her, actually,” Fiona admitted as she tapped her fingertips against the steering wheel. “She just ended up being better at it then me.”

“You…you didn’t need to do that, you know,” Rhys retorted and she caught his eyes in the rear view mirror for a moment, and she was a little stunned to see he looked almost…hurt, by it.

“Don’t take it too personally, Hyperion,” she replied as the song continued to play.

“I thought we were starting to get past this whole thing…” Rhys replied gently.

She clicked off the radio before she turned around to look at him.

“Past what?” she asked as she looked at him. “In case you can’t recall, you still picked Handsome Jack over my sister and me. Don’t think just because this…whatever this is, has been decent so far means I can move past that.”

“He was going to give me everything I ever wanted, do you think I’d be stupid enough not to take it?” Rhys asked sharply. “You’re telling me if someone handed you on a platter everything you ever wanted you wouldn’t seize it at the first opportunity you had?”

Fiona didn’t respond and Rhys pointed his bound hands at her.

“Ahhh, ahhh see, you would,” he continued triumphantly.

“All I wanted was for me and my sister to get off this planet,” Fiona replied sharply as she glared at him. “I wasn’t trying to become the next mega-douche.”

“Well in case you didn’t notice, it all went to shit, so…” Rhys retorted angrily.

Fiona noticed the markings on his chest begin to pulsate faintly and she shook her head. Must be a trick of the light.

“You still chose him! Hell, I’m surprised at the end of the day you went after my sister when we all know you would have killed for the opportunity to even touch that asshole if you could,” Fiona replied as she scoffed. “I almost wish he was still alive, just so that you two could run off into the sunset together, blowing up planets left and right…”

She laughed harshly.

“At least you two would be happy, match made in freaking heaven…”

“I liked your sister, Fiona. I truly did, and I’m sorry if you’re so…so _you_ that you can’t even comprehend that,” Rhys hissed back. “And Handsome Jack _was_ my hero, alright? Past. Tense. I learned pretty damn quickly that I made a mistake trusting him. He screwed me over entirely…”

“Oh poor you, not getting everything,” Fiona cooed mockingly and Rhys scoffed.

“You want to know why I trusted him in the first place? We were going to die up there, we all knew it, and frankly I wanted to have some form of control, a safety net for when it all went sideways,” Rhys retorted. “So I took the safer option.”

“You took the option that would give you an advantage while throwing Sasha and me to the Skags!” Fiona countered. “There was nothing noble about it, no matter what delusions you might have…”

“Why would I throw you to the Skags? You were my _friends_ , in case you forgot. I may not have completely trusted you, but _of course_ I made the mistake to start to, didn’t I?” Rhys snarled.

“Well guess you weren’t the only one, were you?” Fiona replied lowly. “I mean, you broke Sasha’s heart…so forgive me if I’m not so willing to just let it all go.”

Rhys scoffed a little.

“I’m sure she’s just doing fine, Fiona. She always seems to pick herself up in no time,” Rhys retorted. “And frankly, at this point I’m a little less concerned about her.”

“What does that mean?” Fiona asked sharply.

“I mean she’s not the one who’s dragging me across the desert, now is she?” Rhys continued. “You could have left me back in Prosperity Junction, you know. I actually wouldn’t have blamed you.”

The leather creaked as Rhys leaned forward, resting his bound hands on the passenger seat.

“And I’d like to know why.”

Fiona rolled her eyes.

“You looked loaded, I was going to use you to try to get some quick cash from whatever company you sold your soul to once I ensured your safe return,” Fiona replied easily, but as she looked at Rhys she saw he was smiling a little.

“You also could have left me in Solace,” Rhys continued. “But you kidnapped me again and brought me along. Which is making me start to wonder if there’s something you’re not saying.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Fiona retorted as she scoffed.

“That kiss felt pretty real for all of the ten seconds I was still conscious,” Rhys continued with a small smirk and by the Eridians she was going to smack him so hard that handsome little mouth bled crimson.

“It was meant to, dumbass,” Fiona replied as she looked at him, a little pleased as the smile faded a little. “I’m a con woman, remember?”

She scoffed.

“You think Sasha is the only one who knows to use what she has to get what she wants?” Fiona continued.

Rhys smiled, a little less confident now.

“You’re not that good an actress, Fiona,” Rhys retorted, though there was a certain waver to his voice. As if he was almost scared she was going to prove him wrong, and it made Fiona frown.

“You’re forgetting, I lived on Pandora way before you and Glasses-Face showed up,” she replied. “If I wasn’t good, I wouldn’t still be here, now would I?”

That made Rhys lean back and frown, and Fiona felt her stomach clench for some reason at the look of…no, he couldn’t be hurt by that. He hated her just as much as she hated him, her telling him that moment was merely another con shouldn’t have been…

She was grateful for the ECHO comm dinging in that moment. She read the information and typed in the coordinates, starting the car as she looked straight ahead. She glanced back at Rhys to see him pursing his lips a little, his hands in his lap.

“So, where’s the next stop then?” he asked softly as she began to drive.

“Back to the crash site. Loader Bot said he would meet us there.”

They drove in silence for a few moments, the radio playing in the background as the Pandoran desert began to whip by at a rapid pace. Fiona tried to dispel the guilt she felt settling in her stomach, because what the hell did she have to feel guilty _of_?

It was at that moment that something smacked into the side of the car, capsizing it with the crunch of glass and the squealing of metal.

Fiona braced herself as the vehicle rolled, her head in her arms as she felt the world spin around her.

She only had moments as the car rested on its side before whatever it was crashed into the car again, causing it to spin sideways as it shot across the desert, the motor sputtering as she smelt gas. She quickly unbuckled her seat belt, sliding out of the car as she grabbed their belongings. It wasn’t until she had slid out of the car and stood up that she noticed _Rhys was not there_.

The panic rose in her chest as she scanned the desert, looking for auburn-brown hair as she heard something begin to squeal. She whipped around to see a Skag standing there, eyes blazing as it charged, and she wasted no time shooting it between the eyes. She winced as she watched it collapse on top of the car, the sheer bulk of it denting the side.

“Rhys?” she called out. She heard no response and she bristled, cupping her hands around her mouth. “ **Rhys**?”

She expected a snarky response in return, but she was only met with silence. She scanned the desert, her heart pounding in her chest as she found herself praying he was alright.

She saw something move a few metres away, the familiar brown hair coated in sand as they rolled onto their side and coughed wetly. She ran over, kicking up sand as her heart continued to pound.

His tattoos were a bright blue as he coughed again, a small dribble of neon purple leaking from his lips before he spat it into the sand. He looked up at her shakily, wiping his mouth as his eyes faded from hardened jewels to their normal hue.

“Rhys, what the hell is going on?” she asked as he tried to sit up, and she marvelled that he had no broken bones.

“Fiona, I…”

There was the sound of tires fighting against sand and Fiona looked towards the source. Her blood ran cold as she took in an imposing vehicle, almost like an ambulance in its structure. A few people stepped out from the back, their black uniforms reflecting in the sun as she saw a familiar masked figure a few steps away.

“She’s the one you want,” he declared flatly, and Fiona watched as the uniformed men approached her. She took a few steps back, shielding Rhys in the process as she prepped her gun.

“Fiona, run,” Rhys rasped and she shook her head. “That’s not a damn request.”

“And you’ll be fine, I take it?” Fiona replied and she swore she saw Rhys laugh a little at her incredulous tone. “I’m going to take my chances.”

“And that’s why I adore you Fi,” he muttered, only it was too loud. She heard every word, the syllables bouncing around in her skull as she turned to face him in complete shock.

“You… _what_?” she asked as it looked like he was scrambling for words, his face getting redder by the second.

She felt something crash into her side as she was tackled into the dirt, the sound of cuffs clicking closed filling her ears.

“Not too rough, the boss said he wanted her in good condition,” one of the men ordered. “Take the pack too, probably has what we need.”

She was yanked to her feet, spitting dirt from her mouth as she was guided towards the vehicle.

“Leave the man,” Percy ordered and the person in charge nodded as he handed Percy a slim envelope.

“His offer still stands Perseus,” the woman declared. “We could use a bounty hunter like you at Atlas.”

Percy shook his head weakly as Fiona was placed in the back of the vehicle, her bag tossed in behind her.

“I promised myself I would never work for a company again, and I’m not starting now,” he declared as he placed the envelope in his back pocket.

“What do you call this then?” the woman asked.

Percy looked right at Fiona and sighed.

“Giving myself a decent chance.”

The doors slammed shut.

 

“You have to stop moving, Rhys,” Percy declared as the woman in charge got into the car, the group driving away within moments. He knelt down to help Rhys up but Rhys scooted away as he looked up at Percy with pure fury.

“Who are you?” he snarled, feeling his markings begin to glow. “Where are they taking her?”

Percy sighed.

“Rhys…” he began and Rhys gritted his teeth.

“Don’t. Try. Lying. To. Me,” he declared, every word dripping with venom. When Percy didn’t respond he pounced at him, easily slipping free from the rope as he felt himself rapidly losing control. He gritted his teeth as he wrapped his hands around the other man’s neck, his thumbs resting on the man’s Adam’s apple. He didn’t know how he knew, but one perfect squeeze and his neck would cleanly snap if he put in enough effort.

“Rhys, s-s-stop,” Percy begged, his voice almost sounding like it was glitching, and Rhys pressed down harder.

“Where are they taking her, Percy?” he hissed and Percy began to claw at his hands, large hands tapering off in long fingers clutching to Rhys’ wrists as he tried to draw a breath.

“I-I-I-I-I could tell you i-i-i-i-if-f-f-f-f-f you st-t-t-t-t-o-o-o-p-p-p-p choking me-e-e-e-e-e-e-e,” his voice glitched painfully, becoming less and less British and more and more American.

“Give me one good reason to,” Rhys snarled, his eyes hardened as his markings looked like they were on the edge of sparking.

“Because you kill me and you never see her alive again,” a familiar voice declared and Rhys froze. His hands left the other man’s neck as his heart pounded, scrambling back as the man continued. “Great, nearly ruined my voice box.”

“Y-you’re supposed to be dead,” Rhys breathed as his marking rapidly faded in brightness, the panic rising in his chest as the other man shakily pulled down his hood, revealing coppery locks that would have shone in the sun had it not been for the dirt caked into them.

“You have to understand Rhys, he…he gave me an offer I couldn’t pass up,” Jack declared as he pulled away the cloth over his mouth, the goggles coming off in the next moment. He tossed both into the dirt and ran a hand through his hair before he looked up at Rhys.

The scar was an ugly sort of red, clearly made with a branding iron in the shape of a Vault Key and Jack refused to meet Rhys’ eyes as he spoke.

“Get her for him, in exchange for getting me a chance off this planet for good,” he declared.

“Who?” Rhys asked sharply. “And since when does _Handsome Jack_ work for _anyone_?”

The man before him laughed sharply.

“He’d probably love you for saying that,” the man mused. “That was the point of it, after all. To be him in every way…”

The man took a deep breath before he met Rhys’ eyes.

“My name’s Timothy. I used to be Jack’s body double. Well, I mean, I still am, but he’s supposed to be dead and I’m supposed to not exist so…” the man explained with a weak chuckle that was not Jack at all.

“How do I know you’re not him?” Rhys asked and the man actually snorted.

“Because who the hell would want to be _Handsome Jack_?” he replied with a weak smile.

_Me, a year ago._

“Fair enough,” Rhys replied uncertainly.

“You probably have some questions,” Timothy declared as he stood up. He helped Rhys to his feet, and it was so odd seeing Jack blush as their hands touched for a few moments. Well, he wasn’t _really_ Jack, but still…

“Oh. You have _no idea_. But most importantly, who’s taken Fiona? And why?” Rhys asked as he released Tim's hand and took a step back.

“He calls himself Thesus,” Tim explained. “And he intends to open the Vault of the Traveller.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And you thought this story wouldn't feature Timothy Lawrence. Oh you.... ;-)


	10. A Plan Is Set

“He can’t though, not without the last pieces,” Rhys protested as Tim began to gather up his belongings, and Tim snorted a little.

“He’s the head of a major corporation, I’m assuming he can hire other people to find it for him,” Tim replied as he examined his pistol. “Besides, we have bigger concerns than him at the moment…”

“Such as _what_?” Rhys asked incredulously. “ _Betraying_ us again? Oh wait….”

“I didn’t have a choice Rhys!” Tim replied sharply, mismatched eyes of green and blue looking at him with a sharpness that was a pale imitation of Handsome Jack. Didn’t mean it was any less unnerving, though. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m _actually_ a dead man walking. The longer I stay on Pandora, the greater chances I’m going to die at the hands of Vault Hunters who thought they didn’t finish their job the first time!”

“So why didn’t you try to leave before?” Rhys asked just as sharply.

“I couldn’t afford it,” Tim spat out in response. “Being a bounty hunter pays well, but not well enough to afford a shuttle off Pandora.”

“So Thesus offered to pay you enough so you could leave,” Rhys supplied as he bristled. “So he gets _what_ in exchange? Fiona? I mean, what the hell does he want with Fiona?”

“Like I said, I think he intends to open the Vault,” Tim replied.

“But how can he do that when the first pieces are imprinted on me and Fiona? He’d barely be able to assemble Gortys!” Rhys protested.

Tim only shrugged in response as he looked at Rhys, and Rhys gritted his teeth in frustration as he tried to figure out if there was some loophole to the first pieces. Just because they had shocked everyone else that had tried to touch them didn’t mean…wait, yes it did. So then how the hell would…

It dawned on him rapidly and he felt his stomach sink in mild horror.

“Timothy?” Rhys asked slowly, and the other man nodded in response. “What’s the corporation Thesus runs?”

“Atlas, why?” Tim replied innocently as Rhys’ eyes widened.

“I know how he’s going to open the Vault,” Rhys replied quickly as he went to flip over the car. He struggled for a few moments, his feet digging into the dirt as Tim watched him with confusion. “You going to stand there or you going to…..argh, help me?”

“You’re not going to try to go after him, are you?” Tim asked as he crossed his arms. Rhys continued to struggle, though the truck moved slightly and Rhys took that as a sign of progress. “If he wants a Vault that desperately, I say we leave it be. Trust me, I know from personal experience…”

Rhys stopped pushing as his eyes narrowed.

“You don’t strike me as a coward,” Rhys declared, hoping it would rile the other man up, but Tim only shrugged.

“There’s a difference between cowardice and practicality, Rhys,” Tim replied. “And trust me when I say, getting between a man and his Vault never ends well.”

Rhys released his grip on the car and sighed to himself. He squared his shoulders and clenched his fists, riling himself up as he tried to make his markings begin to glow. He gritted his teeth as he felt them remain the same temperature, clenching his fists tighter as he groaned a little.

“What are you doing?” Tim asked just as Rhys felt the faintest spark.

Rhys focused on the look on Fiona’s face as they dragged her away, the anger bubbling up inside him before he turned towards Tim. Tim’s eyes widened as he took in the glowing markings.

“Rhys, don’t,” he warned. “Y-you don’t know how to control it yet…”

“Perfect, I wasn’t hoping to remain in control,” Rhys snarled as he advanced. Tim took a few steps back as Rhys approached him rapidly. As Tim opened his mouth to protest Rhys dashed forward, easily able to slip the pistol out of Tim’s holster as Tim took a step back.

“Rhys, stop, please,” Tim murmured as Rhys prepped the gun, everything clicking into place as he held it level with Tim’s head. Tim gulped audibly _._ “W-what I said before is true. I-if you kill me, she dies too.”

“Why?” Rhys asked angrily, every muscle tensed. “Why does Thesus care about some Pandoran bounty hunter so much?”

“He doesn’t,” a cool voice murmured in Rhys ear, light and feminine. He felt his port buzz a little and he winced, lowering the gun to rub at the side of his head. “But I do. So I suggest you drop the pistol.”

“Or what?” Rhys asked through gritted teeth as he felt his port begin to vibrate. Sort of like when Jack had been…oh. Oh no.

As the thought crossed his mind his metal arm grabbed the pistol, placing it against his temple. He tried to tug his arm away only for it to remain in place and he gulped audibly.

“I do not want to have to kill you Rhys,” the voice continued and he detected some sadness in the tone. “You do not need to be worried about Fiona, if that is what is holding you back. She will play her part in all this and then she will be placed somewhere safe, I can guarantee that.”

“Her part in what?” Rhys asked.

“To right the wrongs of the past. To make sure that certain events will not occur. She will be a hero, Rhys.” 

“How, by sacrificing her to the Vault?” Rhys asked sharply as Tim looked at him with growing concern. He found himself smirking a little. “It’s not like you even have the last piece you need to open it.”

“Luckily, we already have that taken care of. This is your last chance to leave, Rhys. Please, I suggest you take it,” the voice replied as Rhys looked at Tim. “Go with him. He will keep you safe.”

Rhys closed his eyes and nodded, grateful when he felt the AI leave his head as he shuddered.

“What…was that?” Tim asked in concern as Rhys dropped the pistol into the dirt as his arm flung it downwards.

“Tim…how quickly can we get to the Atlas base?” Rhys asked quickly and Tim shrugged.

“Without a car, a day or two at least,” Tim replied. “You can’t seriously be…”

“And with a car?” Rhys asked.

“Half-a-day,” Tim replied and Rhys swore a little as his markings glowed faintly.

“And there’s no faster way to get there?” Rhys asked quickly, and Tim hesitated. “There is, isn’t there?”

Tim did not respond.

“What is it Tim?” Rhys barked. “In case you haven’t noticed, the sooner we get to Fiona the better.”

“Why do you want to get Fiona back so desperately? The last time I saw you two you were practically at each other’s throats,” Tim reminded Rhys and Rhys chuckled as he picked up the pistol.

“Haven’t you heard? That’s just our form of flirting,” Rhys replied as he smiled to himself at the accuracy of the statement.

Tim shook his head.

“Strange foreplay if you ask me,” Tim muttered as he looked at Rhys. “You’re not going to leave Pandora without her, are you?”

“That’s the intention,” Rhys replied as he leveled the gun with Tim’s head. “So. What’s this faster route?”

Tim ran a hand through his hair and chuckled almost nervously.

“It’s not a what. It’s a _who_.”

 

_Fiona tugged at her restraints as she was bounced along in the back of the vehicle, wondering just how much pain she would experience if she was able to get the doors open. And disable the guards, of course._

_There was a strange buzzing that shook through the vehicle before it stopped and she frowned as the doors opened._

_The woman in charge forced her out of the back of the car, and she was about to ask why when her mouth fell open at the sight before her._

_It was an Atlas facility, all gleaming chrome, small robots appearing to circle around some of the people milling about near the entrance. They reminded her for a moment of that silly little robot that used to follow Rhys around all the time back when…_

_Rhys. She had to get back to Rhys. If only to chastise him for distracting her long enough to allow **this** to even be possible. For her to be standing in the middle of a facility that really should not still exist, considering she had been on Pandora to witness the collapse of Atlas. _

_She didn’t want to dwell on the words, and yet as she was led to the main building she couldn’t help but allow them to circle around her head endlessly._

_She was analyzing tone, expression, trying to puzzle together everything like she would for a potential victim of a con, to figure out everything about someone before they could figure out anything about her._

_And yet her mind kept halting on “I adore you”, stuttering painfully as her captors opened the door to the main hub of the building, people chatting animatedly to themselves as she was guided towards the main elevator._

_She needed to be focusing on how to get out of here, not the silly words of some foolish, dickish, one of a kind asshole Hyperion._

_He was probably being sarcastic anyway, like every other word out of that handsome mouth. **Normal** mouth.  _

_The doors of the elevator opened at that moment, revealing that very mouth curled into a smirk._

_“Well, nice to know you can do something right,” Rhys declared as he crossed his arms, her captors saluting him automatically as Fiona felt her mind grind to a halt for the first time in her life._

_How the hell was…_

_“I can take over from here,” Rhys declared as he grabbed her arm, dragging her into the elevator and pressing the button for the top floor. Her captors nodded as the doors slid shut, and she automatically yanked herself from his grip._

_“You look confused,” Rhys commented with a small smile as he glanced at her._

_“I left you in the desert,” she replied sharply._

_“Technically you left me on Helios, but hey, minor detail,” he replied coolly as the doors opened. He ushered them out and towards a grand office, typing in a code before the doors to it slid open._

_It was large enough to fit at least eleven of the old caravan in it, the perfect image of opulence and she cocked an eyebrow automatically. Every object in the room just oozed money and she wondered how many things she could sneak out to try to sell at the Pandoran markets. Her and Sasha could make a small **fortune** off of it. Besides, it didn’t really look like Rhys was using the small statue on his desk anyways. _

_“Though if you mean the other Rhys I’ve heard about wandering around as of late, then yes, you left him…uh, me, in the desert,” Rhys replied as he un-cuffed her. She rubbed her wrists as he settled in the chair behind his desk. He gestured to the seats in front of it and Fiona sat down hesitantly as her brow furrowed in confusion._

_“How the hell can there be **two** of you running around?” Fiona asked and Rhys shrugged. "One of you is usually bad enough."_

_“Side effect of the Vault, nothing to be concerned about,” he reassured her. “Besides, it’s not really going to matter in the long run.”_

_“What do you mean by that?” Fiona asked. “You’re…you’re not going to kill him, are you?”_

_Rhys frowned a little as he watched her._

_“Since when do you care what happens to me?” he asked in confusion before he shook his head and pasted on a smile. “I can assure you he’ll be fine.”_

_“Somehow I’m not too convinced about that,” Fiona replied._

_“I can assure you, he’s telling the truth,” a cool voice bounced around the office and Fiona tensed as Rhys smiled to himself. He typed a few things into his palm interface and a face appeared on the screen beside his desk. He turned it around to face Fiona, revealing a young woman with her hair braided on one side of her head, the other side clean-shaven. “Nice to finally meet you Fiona. I'm Angel.”_

_Fiona’s eyes darted between Rhys and the AI on the screen as she frowned._

_“Your friend is currently leaving the planet with Perseus, he will be fine,” Angel declared and Fiona bristled._

_Of course the asshole would abandon her. **Typical.** _

_“So what is it you need me for, exactly?” Fiona asked the AI, who smiled at her pleasantly._

_“Simple. We need you to open the Vault of the Traveller and make sure Rhys gets inside,” the AI declared. “This one. Not the one you’ve been travelling with.”_

_As if to emphasize her point the Rhys before her pointed to himself and she wanted to smack him for it._

_“Why? So he can claim the treasure for Atlas?” Fiona asked as she leaned back, crossing her arms._

_“So he can actually give Pandora a chance to thrive,”  Angel replied with a bright grin. “Fiona, the Vault doesn’t contain a treasure…it contains a portal. One that allows someone to go to different planets, even different universes if one wants to! And, most importantly for us…”_

_“It will allow us to travel through time,” Rhys declared with a grin of his own._

_“Why…why would you want to travel through time?” Fiona asked hesitantly. “To try to get to the Vault before others do?”_

_“Fiona, don’t think so small,” Rhys declared as he brought something up on the screen beside the AI. “If everything goes according to plan, then opening a Vault will be only a minor reward.”_

_“In what circumstances is getting Vault treasure ‘minor’?” Fiona asked skeptically._

_“When you can eliminate a threat instead,” Rhys replied as he pulled up an image of a masked man, his familiar mismatched eyes looking out of the screen with a smug confidence that made her tense._

_“You’re planning to use the Vault….to kill Handsome Jack?” Fiona asked in complete shock._

_“The Vault can only go so far forward and back,” the AI explained. “So unfortunately, no. But… we can go back with enough time to destroy the ID drive with his AI on it. Make sure Rhys never found it in the first place. Prevent all the chaos that happened as a result.”_

_“But…what about all this?” Fiona asked as she looked around. “You’re willing to give up Atlas just to get rid of an AI?”_

_Rhys grinned._

_“Oh Fiona, why would I want Atlas…when I can simply just take over Hyperion?”_

Rhys shifted uncomfortably on the bar stool as Timothy kept checking his ECHO.

Tim had been surprisingly patient explaining everything as they had righted the overturned car, hopped inside and sped off to meet this person.

Once they had reached the main road Tim began to explain what he could. What had happened on Elpis, the whole Vault key fiasco, the scarring on his face (“Jack wanted his double to be a perfect imitation”, a sentence which had made Rhys shudder), but somehow nothing had come up about them needing to go to some _Pandoran bar_.

“Remind me again why we’re here?” Rhys asked out of the corner of his mouth as he watched one figure slump forward onto their table.

“She’s the only person I know who has back channels through Pandora, she can help us find a way to get to Fiona a lot faster,” Tim replied before he seemed to grimace and shake his head. “Sorry, just…just caught the double meaning.”

“How do you know her anyway?” Rhys asked.

“I’m his ex-wife sugar,” a light feminine voice replied.

Rhys spun around so fast that he nearly toppled off of the stool, righting himself just in time to be met by a…rather well-defined chest. He looked up, his eyes meeting a pair of pale green ones set in a painted face and…oh Lord she was a lot more attractive than he had been expecting.

She sauntered out from behind the bar, approaching Tim before she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him tightly to her. Rhys swore he saw her hand go to Tim’s ass before she squeezed it playfully and Tim yelped, causing Rhys to chuckle nervously.

“Thought you were too busy with your hands wrapped around all that weaponry to remember little ol’ me,” she cooed before she kissed his cheek, leaving a red stain that she swiped off with her thumb.

Tim chuckled nervously, his hand going to his hair before he responded.

“Hard to forget you Mox,” he replied fondly, a faint blush to his cheeks.

“And who’s your _charming_ friend?” Moxxi asked with a cock of one perfect eyebrow, and Rhys caught the meaning immediately, opening his mouth to retort when she continued. “Might just need to _steal_ him from you if you’re not _putting him to good use_ …”

Rhys made a strange noise in the back of his throat, something caught between a squeak and a groan at the prospect of _that_ , quickly trying to cough it away as Moxxi looked amused.

“Just a friend, Moxxi, nothing more,” Tim clarified and she just continued to look amused. “I-I was actually wondering if you still had that Fast Travel station? The programmable one?”

“Why, trying to outrun your demons?” she teased and Tim just chuckled nervously. “Or trying to get away from _me_?”

“Atlas need rescue for,” Rhys sputtered out before he corrected himself as Moxxi turned to look at him. “I mean, we need to get someone from an Atlas facility.”

She cocked an eyebrow as she looked at the pair.

“After all that weaponry they gave me, seems _impolite_ to try to slip you in through the back door,” she purred before she looked at Tim. “But I _suppose_ I can make an exception…”

She wrapped an arm around Tim and pulled him close.

“But you’ll have to pay the price Mr. Lawrence,” she cooed and Tim nodded eagerly as he flushed. “Perfect. Just slip yourselves into the back and it should be there.”

The pair nodded, both dazed at the woman before them, Rhys nearly falling off his chair as he stood up. He began to make his way to the back when he noticed Tim wasn’t right behind him. He turned around, his mouth falling open as he saw Moxxi giving his companion a rather, ahem, _thorough_ kiss. She pulled away, her red lipstick all over Tim’s mouth. She murmured something to him and he nodded in a complete haze.

He practically floated over to Rhys, a dazed grin on his face as they went into the back room.

“ _Ex_ -wife, huh?” Rhys asked as Tim programmed the machine, and Tim chuckled nervously as he wiped at his mouth.

“It’s…it’s a little complicated,” Tim murmured as the destination _Cronus_ appeared, smiling to himself as he stood under the beam of the machine. “I’ll see you there.”

He pressed the button and he disappeared in a wave of pixilation.

“Make sure he comes back in one piece,” Rhys heard Moxxi purr and he spun around before he nodded eagerly. “He’s a precious _asset_ , would _hate_ to lose him now.”

He continued to nod as he stepped back, accidentally hitting the button in the process with his long arm, the bar disappearing rapidly before it was replaced by what looked like a typical back room of a building.

“Ready?” Tim asked as he slung his rifle across his back, handing Rhys his pistol and Rhys nodded as he tried to quell the panic rising in his chest.

“As I’ll ever be.”


	11. An Agreement

Rhys marvelled at what this version of himself had made as they slipped through the main hall. Everything gleamed, including the robots that followed people like puppy dogs, hovering close to their heads. He saw one projecting a screen that the worker was typing on and he smiled to himself as he felt Tim drag his arm.  
  
"C'mon, we need to find Fiona and get out of here," Tim insisted and Rhys sighed before he nodded.  
  
He wished he could stay here a little longer though. It was perfect. It was everything he has hoped it would be and he grinned to himself as he thought of the people on Helios who said he would never amount to anything.  
  
Proved them wrong, didn't he?  
  
They made their way to the elevator, slipping inside as Tim pressed the button for the top floor and Rhys frowned.  
  
"What is it?" Tim asked as they watched the floor numbers change.  
  
"It's just...that seemed too easy, you know? No guards, nothing threatening our safety. If it was me in charge, I'd have at least some security..."  
  
"Well Thesus isn't you, now is he?" Tim replied and Rhys chuckled nervously.  
  
"Err, actually, about that..."  
  
He felt a sharp jolt run through him, electricity coursing through his frame as he collapsed onto the floor of the elevator.  
  
He groaned and turned his head slightly to see Tim collapse as well, though unlike Rhys he had been knocked out cold.  
  
He flipped himself onto his back as he heard something whirring, his eyes widening when he took in a familiar floating robot.  
  
"Dumpy?"  
  
"It's Dover, actually," the robot replied, deep and quintessentially English. "And I am sorry I must do this."  
  
Another jolt ran through Rhys as Dover electrocuted him, this time knocking him out as he gave a pained moan.

 

 _"Not that taking over Hyperion is the most important thing, of course," Angel reminded him and Rhys nodded in agreement._ _  
  
_ Rhys glanced behind her before he stood up, his mouth falling open. Fiona turned around, her mouth open as well as she saw Rhys and someone who looked suspiciously like Jack being hovered towards them. They were caught in a soft blue light and the robot carrying them dropped them sharply before it floated over to the Atlas President.  
  
"I have subdued them, Thesus," the robot declared, Rhys patting it on the side absentmindedly.  
  
"Good job Dover," he murmured as he went around the desk, looking down at the two figures.  
  
It was Jack who awoke first, sitting up with a moan as he clutched his head. He looked up at Rhys, his eyes widening as the President offered him a hand up.  
  
"Can I just say I'm a big fan?" Rhys declared in a gush, sounding like a teenage girl meeting their celebrity crush. "Just...you're _Perseus_. **The** sniper of Pandora. _The best in the business_. All that anyone knows about you is your name and the sound your rifle makes when its bullet meets its target!"  
  
He held the other man's hand for a bit too long and Fiona was surprised to see that Jack looked almost...bashful about it.  
  
"Thank you?" He replied.  
  
"Since when does Jack work as a sniper? Or is even _alive_ for that matter?" Fiona asked sharply, causing the Rhys currently holding Jack's hand to drop it.  
  
"Oh, this is his body double," Rhys declared as if that was the best explanation in the world. Fiona frowned.  
  
"Jack has a body double?" She asked skeptically.  
  
"Hi," not-Jack replied with a small wave. "Name's Tim. Perseus is just..."  
  
"A false name. I get it," Fiona declared as she stood up. She approached the Rhys on the floor, kneeling down as she saw his eyes begin to flutter open.  
  
He let out a soft groan as he sat up, running his hand across the back of his head to check for any blood. His hand came back clean and he smiled a little to himself before he looked at Fiona.  
  
Who was currently sporting a worried frown as she knelt down beside him.  
  
"What the hell are you doing here?" She hissed.  
  
"Nice to see you too," Rhys replied as he tried to stand up, only to wobble a little. He expected to fall back to the ground only to feel Fiona clutch his normal arm and yank him to his feet as she stood up.  
  
He proved heavier than expected, though, falling forward a little. His chest collided with hers, his hands somehow landing on the desk behind them as her hands automatically went to his shoulders so that he would not tip them over completely.  
  
"You okay?" Rhys asked, and Fiona nodded silently, causing a small smile to bloom on his features.  
  
It oozed a sort of tenderness she had not been anticipating and it took the other Rhys coughing politely to make her realize her hands were creeping up this Rhys' neck.  
  
She dropped her hands automatically as she maneuvered her way out of their current position, refusing to look at the dirtied Rhys, her focus instead on the clean one.

“I thought I told you to leave,” Angel insisted as the dirtied Rhys looked at her face on the screen. He shrugged a little.

“And not make my heroic entrance?” he replied as he winked at Fiona, who only rolled her eyes.

“Yes, being overpowered by a dumpy little robot seems oddly heroic,” Fiona replied with a smirk, but she had to admit, she was a little impressed he was even here at all. Also, maybe just a **tad** relieved to see him too.

The relief was short-lived as Angel glared at the dirtied Rhys, who’s port sparked violently as he gritted his teeth, wobbling a little and Fiona wrapped an arm around his waist as he slumped forward, taking shaky breaths as Fiona looked at the AI with horror.

“What are you doing Angel?” other Rhys asked in shock.

“I’ve subdued him for the time being,” Angel replied coolly as she looked at Fiona. “I do not want to hurt him Fiona, truly I don’t. If you cooperate, I promise I will make sure he remains safe.”

“And how do you intend to do that?” Tim asked worriedly, causing the AI to turn to look at him.

Angel watched his features for a moment too long, as if she was trying to trace every line of them, and Fiona wondered for a moment if it was even possible for AI’s to be attracted to anything that wasn’t coding. Because that single glance, the slight flicker to her image as Tim watched her…it almost made her look like a blushing schoolgirl.

_Guess Rhys wasn’t the only one with a crush._

“He’s from a different timeline,” she explained. “We can send him back to his own timeline once we open the Vault and then we can use it for ourselves.”

“And if I don’t cooperate?” Fiona asked as Rhys winced a little from the aftershocks.

“You will,” Angel replied gently as the doors behind them opened. The group turned around to see a yellow skeleton with a familiar red eye as its head approach, a small piece in its palm and Fiona watched it place the object on the desk.

“I have brought you the last piece. Will you let my friends go now?” Loader Bot asked and Fiona never expected she would be this overjoyed to see a piece of Hyperion tech.

“We cannot do that LB,” other Rhys replied, almost sadly. “We need them still.”

“To open the Vault?” the robot asked and other Rhys nodded. “Do you still promise to help me save Gortys?”

“Of course,” Angel declared with a warm smile. “No harm will come to her, we can promise you that.”

“And what will happen to him?” Loader Bot asked as he looked back at Rhys. “He does not look well enough to fight the Traveller.”

“Fight? Fight _who_?” Fiona asked slowly. The Rhys she was holding laughed a little hysterically.

“Great, looking forward to doing that again,” Rhys muttered.

“Doing _what,_ Rhys?” Fiona asked, a little angrily.

“If you’re going to open a Vault, you need to defeat the Vault Guardian protecting it,” Angel declared. “We have enough weapons at our disposal that this should not be an issue. Once the Guardian is subdued, we will sneak into the Vault and activate the portal.”

“You’re not going to try to kill it?” Rhys asked in surprise.

“We don’t need to,” other Rhys declared with a small grin. “We just need to keep it distracted long enough to get us inside.”

“And how do you intend to do that?” Fiona asked skeptically.

Other Rhys opened his mouth to respond when something made him stop. Fiona followed his gaze to see that her Rhys’ tattoos were faintly pulsating in time with his heartbeat, his side starting to grow warm.

“Fiona’s right. That has to be, hands down, the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” her Rhys declared with a grimace. “I have seen firsthand what the Traveller can do, and simply distracting it? That’s a suicide mission. So unless you want to kill everyone in this room, I suggest you come up with a better plan.”

Fiona looked surprised that he even agreed with her before she confidently nodded.

“You never mentioned he was a Daimon,” Angel breathed as she looked at Tim, who began to shake his head rapidly. “That just makes the plan a whole lot simpler.”

“He can’t control his abilities yet, how do you expect him to be able to control a Vault Guardian?” Tim asked sharply.

“Control _what now_?” Rhys asked quickly as his tattoos continued to glow a little. He maneuvered out of Fiona’s grip and looked at Tim fully. “You never mentioned anything about being able to control Vault Guardians…”

“Rhys, no,” Tim insisted sharply.

“I’m not saying I want to do it, I’m just wondering how that didn’t come up?” Rhys asked with interest. “Because, oh I don’t know, _that **might** have been a piece of vital information_?”

“Rhys, it’s just a rumour. There’s been no instances of a Daimon being able to…”

“There is, though,” Angel insisted excitedly as she brought up a video. Fiona blanched as she saw Handsome Jack standing there, a dragon-like creature made of stone roaring behind him as a group of Vault Hunters went pale in horror. “My father barely knew what he was and he was still able to control the Guardian to some degree!”

She pulled down the video.

“Just think what would happen if we had a Daimon on our side who knew the full extent of their powers!” Angel babbled excitedly.

“Why is he…whatever he is and I’m not?” other Rhys asked in surprise and Angel smiled.

“You’ve never touched a single ounce of Eridium, you haven’t been triggered,” Angel replied quickly.

“Triggered?” other Rhys asked slowly.

“It’s complicated,” Rhys replied with a shrug.

“How is any of this going to help us?” Fiona asked sharply, causing the group to look at her.

“He could keep the Guardian under control long enough that the rest of us could sneak into the Vault,” Angel explained. “Then once it is safe he can join us inside!”

“That’s insane!” Fiona protested.

“And how will this help us save Gortys?” Loader Bot asked.

“Rhys can keep the Guardian distracted long enough that Gortys will not even be close to being harmed,” Angel replied confidently.

“Are you certain?” Loader Bot asked and the AI nodded. “Then I suppose that is better than my plan. I say we follow theirs.”

“How do you expect Rhys to even be ready to face a Vault Guardian?” Tim asked sharply, to which Angel beamed.

“Simple: you’re going to teach him how.”

Tim looked hesitant.

“I can also guarantee that you can use the Vault to be able to leave this planet once and for all…that is what you want, isn’t it?” other Rhys asked with a slow grin, already knowing the response.

Tim closed his eyes and sighed before he nodded.  

“So what, I have no say in this now?” Rhys asked angrily.

“It would be for Gortys,” Loader Bot replied innocently.

“And it would allow you to be able to return to your own universe,” Angel added. “Unless there is something keeping you here?”

Rhys risked a glance at Fiona as he felt his stomach clench. Because they were right, in a way. Nothing should have been keeping him there, and yet…

She wasn’t the same person he had last seen before all this chaos of the Vault. He knew that. This was a different Fiona, one that would probably still want to rip his head off given the right opportunity. There had been no journey between them in this world, no slow re-building of trust. Just chaos piled upon chaos, and in the midst of it he had never given her a good reason to trust him.

But he still cared. And he hated himself for it.

“Her and her sister get off the planet too,” he replied after a moment. “Promise me if this all works out they can leave just like Tim.”

Rhys gave her a small smile as she looked at him, completely stunned. If at his words or the fact he was agreeing to work with them, he couldn’t decipher.  

“She did say she wanted to see different planets, right?” Rhys asked with a weak chuckle.

Fiona swallowed before she nodded, other Rhys’ arm going around his shoulders as he tensed.

“But of course,” his own voice declared in his ear and he shuddered. “Perseus, you can take him to the weapons facility. I have a few guns that might be of use to us.

Tim nodded as he motioned for Rhys to follow him.

“Oh, and Perseus?” other Rhys asked as they began to walk away. Tim turned around and crossed his arms a little as other Rhys scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Just wanted to say…uhh, thanks. For agreeing to do this.”

Tim cocked an eyebrow.

“Not like you gave me much choice,” he replied drily as he led Rhys out of the office.

Rhys snorted at the expression of surprise on his own face.


	12. Training at the Atlas Facility

“So who were the other two Daimons?”

Timothy looked through the scope of his rifle as he examined the targets on the opposite end of the room, prepping his gun before he let off a shot or two. The sound bounced through the room and to Tim it was almost comforting.

It had been a week since Thesus’ request that Rhys be trained how to fight, and Tim felt like they were making little progress. Sure, when Rhys’ abilities were triggered he was fine, able to dodge attacks with a graceful agility and land blows with sharp precision.

Tim and Rhys both knew, however, that they couldn’t solely rely on that. Not that Rhys appeared to be happy with that consensus, his left hand wrapped clumsily in bandages as redness seeped through them.

Thesus had actually been quite kind, letting Rhys use some of the health machines to heal himself and his once-broken hand before he began training in the first place. Not that its effects appeared to last very long.

“What?” Tim asked as Rhys picked up a long, thin pole, spinning it around a few times before he stabbed at the air, nearly toppling over in the process. Tim began to laugh and Rhys just rolled his eyes and scowled.

“You mentioned there being two other Daimons you knew,” Rhys replied as he typed into a keypad on his palm interface, pulling up two mannequins he could practice on. Thesus for some reason had allowed Rhys into the systems and Tim questioned why he trusted him.

“What about them?” Tim asked as he stood up from his crouched position.

“Well, what happened to them for one,” Rhys replied as he charged at one mannequin, barely nicking it and Tim snorted. “Oh c’mon!”

“First one went mad and tried to blow up the moon. Didn’t know her personally, but…yeah. Not exactly someone you’d want to come up against in a fight,” Tim responded as he watched Rhys. “Didn’t help she was Dahl military either. Military training with Daimon powers, bound to end in chaos…”

“And the other?” Rhys asked as he smacked one of the mannequins, a hollow ringing running through the pole he was holding. Rhys gritted his teeth at the sound before he shook his head.

Tim hesitated, unsure how he should respond when Thesus stepped into the training facility.

For once Tim could admit he was happy to see the other Rhys. Not that he didn’t see enough of him already, the man practically hovering over Tim’s shoulder every opportunity he got. To say it was _exasperating_ would be an understatement.

“Perseus, I was wondering if we could talk, uhh, privately for a few seconds?” Thesus asked, and Tim nearly cocked an eyebrow at the slight eagerness in his tone. “I-I mean Timothy, sorry…”

“Perseus is fine,” he replied as he followed the other Rhys out of the training facility. They stood in what appeared to be the showers and Tim crossed his arms. “Well?”

“I was hoping…well wondering actually if you could do me a small favour?” Thesus asked, a small blush to his cheeks. Tim nodded for him to continue. “I, err, well, I was wondering if you could teach me how to use a gun?”

“You’re the head of a weapons manufacturing company and you don’t know how to fire a gun?” Tim asked skeptically, and Thesus only shrugged.

“Never really needed to know before,” he confessed and Tim cocked an eyebrow.

“So why the sudden interest?” Tim asked, and the man before him seemed to go scarlet before he coughed into his palm and did not respond.  

“I-I just thought it might be a good idea, that’s all,” he replied gently, refusing to meet Tim’s eyes.

Tim opened his mouth to respond when Thesus’ ECHO comm beeped incessantly and the man before him sighed.

“Sorry, have to take this,” he apologized before he began to type into the device. He pressed his metallic thumb against a small hole in the device and Tim saw Thesus’ eye flicker slightly before it shifted to a vibrant green. “Hello?”

Thesus stood there for a few moments before he nodded.

“Give me what I supposed to get for retrieving Fiona for you and I’ll consider it,” Tim declared. Thesus nodded absentmindedly before he met Tim’s eyes.

“Done,” he replied as his eye went back to its golden hue. “So, you prefer it all in cash or…”

“You’re actually going to give me the money?” Tim asked skeptically.

“I don’t see a reason why I wouldn’t,” Thesus replied with a small smile. “You did complete the job after all. Seems fair I actually, you know, pay you for it.”

Tim laughed a little at this, which caused Thesus to smile a little wider.

“Fine. Training starts at 22:00, I’ll bring the guns.”

He couldn’t believe he was actually agreeing to this….but hey, the pay was good.

And he’d sold his integrity before for a lot less than this.

 

_Rhys whacked at the mannequin, causing it to wobble slightly before he heard sarcastic clapping echo through the training facility._

_He whipped around to see Fiona leaning against the doorway, a small smirk on her features as Rhys straightened his stance._

_“You’re really showing those mannequins, aren’t you?” Fiona declared._

_“I’ll have you know they tremble in fright whenever they see me,” Rhys replied automatically as she walked into the facility. He made a wide swing with the pole before he aimed for the head of the mannequin, missing completely._

_“Oh yeah, can definitely see that,” Fiona retorted._

_“Is there anything you wanted in particular or…” Rhys asked, though he couldn’t hide the small smile on his features as she approached._

_“Thought it might do you some good to actually fight against a moving target,” Fiona declared as she slipped off her jacket, and Rhys’ eyes widened as she picked up the other pole. She swung it around a few times, wobbling a little and Rhys snorted._

_“Wouldn’t be a fair fight,” he declared as she steadied herself. She approached, the pole in her right hand as she curled and uncurled her fingers around the grip and Rhys smirked to himself as he assumed his opening stance. “But I guess I could teach you a thing or two…only if you’re up to it, of course…”_

_She charged for him and he cocked an eyebrow as he easily stepped aside, causing her to shoot past him._

_“You’re going to have to try harder than…” he began as he looked down at his hands. The pole was gone, and his head jerked up rapidly to see Fiona holding the two poles with a wide grin. “How…”_

_“Rhys, you should know by now that it’s no fun playing fair,” she replied as she dropped both the poles to the ground with a loud clatter. “Besides, I didn’t want to practice with these.”_

_Rhys tensed as she approached, his fists up and she just rolled her eyes before she aimed right between his fists, his head knocking back sharply. He clutched his nose and groaned as he bent forward._

_“Owww, what the hell!” he moaned as he checked under his nose, his fingers coming back reddish-purple with blood flecked with neon violet particles. He glared up at her as her fist flew towards his face again and he jerked back. “What are you trying to do?”_

_She kicked his legs out from under him, causing him to fall back with a sharp thump as he groaned even louder._

_“Has he even been training you?” Fiona asked with a smirk as she looked down at him. She offered him her hand and he took it gratefully, only for her to use her other hand to sock him across the jaw._

_He clutched his jaw and rubbed it gently as he glared at her._

_“What the hell are you doing Fiona?” he asked sharply._

_“Trying to make sure you don’t die when we go to the Vault,” she replied and he scoffed._

_“I’m pretty sure the Traveller isn’t…” he began when she punched him in the stomach, causing him to wheeze sharply. He felt his markings heat up rapidly. “Fiona, you need to stop.”_

_“Why?” she asked as she held up her fists. “Besides, you sort of deserve this after everything that happened.”_

_“I thought we were past this,” he replied as he dodged a punch to his nose. She used the opportunity to hit him in the throat and he let out a sharp wheeze._

_“It’s not about that,” she retorted as she shook out her hand. “Like I said, I’m trying to help you survive.”_

_“Really? Because to me it looks like…” Rhys began as he took a step back at the same time she swung at him. “That you’re just really interested in beating me up for what happened on Helios.”_

_He grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm behind her back as he felt his markings begin to glow. She let out a sharp cry before she stomped on his foot, causing him to release his grip as she went to punch him again._

_He caught her hand in his human one, giving her a small smirk before she twisted herself out of his grip. She shook out her hand again before she rubbed it as she looked at him with a small frown._

_“How many times do I need to say I’m sorry Fiona?” he asked sharply as she looked at him. “It wasn’t me who abandoned you on Helios, was it?”_

_“I told you it’s not about that,” she replied as she went to hit him again, only for him to jerk back smoothly as his eyes started to harden, a faint glow emitting from them that seemed neon purple._

_“Then what is it about Fiona?” he asked angrily, his words taking on a strange tone that seemed almost ethereal, and Fiona’s eyebrows rose._

_“I just…I don’t want you to die, alright?” she replied as she charged at him, only for him to duck out of the way easily. “You didn’t see what the Traveller did to Gortys, and if you think I’m losing you too then…”_

_“Why does that matter to you?” Rhys asked as his eyes began to soften, the markings fading as he felt a painful hopefulness begin to swell in his chest. “Fiona…”_

_She used the opportunity to punch him in the jaw again, knocking him back on the ground again._

_“The Traveller does not fight fair,” she spat angrily. “So you need to learn how to fight like a Pandoran, not like…whatever the hell you are.”_

_She went to kick him in the side and he used the opportunity to grab her ankle, pulling her to the ground with a sharp thump as her hat flew off her head. It rolled away for a few moments before it settled away from them, and Fiona looked stunned._

_“Who says that I don’t already know how?” he replied with a small smile, causing her to raise her head as she looked at him. He pulled himself up into a sitting position as he rubbed his head for a few moments, wincing to himself. “I did survive for that month, after all…”_

_He offered his hand to her and pulled her up, causing her to grit her teeth as she sat beside him._

_“Yeah, with a stun baton,” she replied as she rolled her eyes._

_“Hey, you can’t argue with the results it had,” he replied defensively and she smiled a little._

_She noticed his tattoos were pulsating a little and watched them with interest, causing him to lean back a little as she leaned forward and offered her hand._

_“You’re not going to hit me again are you?” he asked as she continued to watch him, helping him to his feet as they stood up. She stiffened suddenly as she gazed at him, her eyes meeting his as her mouth fell open._

_“You were that thing, weren’t you?” she asked. “The one who took down the Rakk?”_

_He nodded uncertainly and she scoffed to herself as she dropped his hand._

_“Well now I feel like a bit of an idiot,” she muttered before she laughed to herself. “Maybe you don’t need my help after all...”_

_“I’ll always need you Fiona,” Rhys replied automatically before his eyes widened. “I-I mean…you know…for making sure I don’t die. I mean, I know I won’t die, well I don’t know for sure I won’t die but I’d at least like a fighting chance…”_

_“Can you…not say things like that, please?” she teased. “Kinda ruins the whole ‘I’m an aloof Hyperion’ thing you’ve got going.”_

_“Aloof?” he asked, preening like a peacock. “You think I’m **aloof**?”_

_“I said **others** think you’re aloof. I know you’re just an idiot,” she replied as she went to smack his arm playfully when she noticed the small drip of neon purple leaking from his mouth. She rose her hand as if to wipe it away when she hesitated. _

_He nodded to her silently as he took a step closer._

_“Just…don’t hit me again, alright?” he asked and she smiled a little as she went to wipe off the liquid. Her hand was only a few inches from his face as Rhys’ heart pounded, from the exertion or what she was about to do he had no idea anymore._

_“ **Don’t touch it**!” a familiar voice barked sharply and the pair turned to look at the source. _

_Timothy rapidly approached and Fiona took a few steps back as she crossed her arms._

_“Rhys, you need to wipe it yourself,” Tim ordered and Rhys frowned a little._

_“Why?” he asked, more than a tad annoyed with his instructor._

_“It’s pure slag,” he replied. “If she touches it, it’s as good as touching Eridium. Instant death.”_

_Rhys stiffened before he wiped his mouth rapidly, the liquid staining his sleeve._

_“How is that possible?” Fiona asked as she watched Rhys. “It’s not like he’s one of Jack’s old mining machines.”_

_“But his body functions in a similar way,” Tim explained. “Every time his abilities are activated, the Eridium in his body is processed and some of it escapes.”_

_“But if it’s in his body, why can we all still touch him and not, well, die?” Fiona asked as Rhys nodded in agreement._

_“Wish I could tell you,” Tim confessed. “My best guess is it remains neutralized. At least, that was how it was 90% of the time with Jack.”_

_The trio’s eyes all widened for different reasons as Tim began to ramble._

_“Jack? Handsome Jack?” Fiona asked sharply._

_“He was a Daimon?” Rhys asked in horror. “How…”_

_Tim chuckled drily._

_“He went to try to claim a Vault. Got a Vault Key to the face instead,” he replied as he pointed at the scarring on his face. “The Eridium in it activated his abilities, made him scarily intelligent. That’s the reason he was able to get Hyperion to the top in such a short amount of time.”_

_“He just used his abilities to outwit his opponents,” Rhys declared with almost awe and Fiona smacked his arm. He winced as he looked at her. “C’mon, you have to admit that is pretty cool!”_

_“Clearly you and I have different definitions of cool, Rhys,” she replied drily._

_“Which, umm, actually reminds me. There is something I need to talk to you about Rhys…” Tim began as the doors behind them opened._

_“We are needed in Rhys’ office. Apparently, Angel has found something of interest,” Loader Bot declared. “He requests our presence urgently.”_

_“Can it wait, LB?” Rhys asked in mild annoyance._

_Loader Bot seemed to pause for a moment._

_"Negative. He says that it is of great importance and he cannot wait."_

_Rhys swore hear could hear a tone of amusement in Loader Bot's next sentence._

_"He sounds...impatient."_


	13. A Glimpse of Stone

"The Vault is trying to open on its own."

Angel pulled up a short video in which the distinct arch of a Vault appeared to flicker in and out of existence before she spoke.

"We believe that something might be influencing it to want to appear here," Angel explained as she pulled up another video. "We've already tried monitoring for instances of robots like Gortys being in the area but so far there has been no activity."

"Maybe it's someone who's already opened it?" Fiona asked as she looked at Rhys. "After all, we know that it's possible for it to travel between universes...."

"We've been monitoring the area, if someone was trying to travel through they would have appeared by now," Theseus murmured as he typed into his computer.

"Not necessarily," Rhys declared, causing the group to all turn to look at him at once. "Uhh, I mean, when I came here I was nowhere near the Vault. I was just thrown into the wreckage of Helios..."

Angel pulled up a planet-wide scan as Rhys watched with fascination.

"Perks of being President of Atlas," Theseus boasted as he looked at Tim pointedly, who looked a little startled by the attention.

Rhys gave a low whistle of awe as the map was highlighted by little dots of different hues, all of them in constant movement. Angel scanned them over before she sighed to herself.

"There's no other Eridium signatures," she commented with a disappointed sigh.

"Signatures?" Rhys asked in interest.

"When you went through the Vault, the Eridium would have left traces on your body," Angel replied. She did something and the view narrowed down to one dot that was blinking. "This is you."

Rhys' eyes widened in surprise as Fiona frowned a little.

"So he's radioactive?" Fiona asked and Angel nodded. Fiona took a step or two away from him. He quelled the small twist in his stomach at the action.

"He's not going to spread it to you," Angel reassured her. "Your little fight isn't going to give you Eridium poisoning."

"Fight?" Thesus asked in surprise. "Why were you fighting?"

"She was trying to train me," Rhys replied.

"I thought that was Timothy's job," Theseus declared as he looked at the other man.

"Forgive me, someone kept me a little distracted," Tim replied with a small smirk and Rhys watched his double blush a little.

He knew that look and his stomach sank in dread.

Because he always knew where _those_ kinds of infatuations ended for him, and none of them would be good.

"So what are we expected to do now?" Fiona asked as she crossed her arms. "Just wait for the Vault to settle and then...what? Plunder it for its riches?"

"What about Gortys?" Loader Bot asked, a slight tone of worry in his voice despite its monotone. Kind of impressive, actually.

"We still plan to assemble her," Theseus declared. "She needs to keep the Vault in place after all."

Rhys looked up at one of the screens in his (well, Theseus') office and frowned as he looked at the clip of the Vault appearing and then disappearing.

Because for a moment it _almost_ looked like...

"We should get back to training, Rhys," Tim declared as he rested a hand on Rhys' shoulder, causing him to jump a little in surprise. "Just in case there's still something there."

Rhys continued to watch the screen, his eyes narrowing before he manoeuvred himself out of Tim's grasp.

"Actually, Fiona tired me out, I think..." Rhys replied before he yawned exaggeratedly. "I think I'm going to go rest for a bit."

Tim frowned before he nodded curtly, focusing his attention on Theseus as he approached him.

"About your proposition..." Rhys heard as the rest of the group filed out and he wondered wryly just what kind of "proposition" his double had offered Jack's, err, double.

He didn't ponder on that for two long as he went to his room, something set up by Theseus with a functioning shower and an actual bed that had nearly brought a tear of joy to Rhys' eye when he saw them.

He slipped off his training gear, his chest exposed as he looked at himself in the mirror for a few moments.

He traced the markings on his chest and down his arm, taking note of how they seemed to be glowing at the edges in time with his heartbeat.

"Surprised you didn't call yourself Narcissus," he heard a familiar voice comment and he whipped his head around as he saw Fiona leaning in the doorway with a small smile.

"I'm surprised you didn't break my nose," he retorted as he turned back to face the mirror, the blood under his nose dried and crusted over, and he winced to himself. There was also some bruising on his jaw and he rubbed it tenderly as Fiona laughed a little. "I'm glad you enjoy your handiwork."

He turned fully around, bending down as he searched for a cleaner shirt as he felt Fiona's cool green eyes watching him. He looked up at her suddenly and he realized with a small smile she had been staring, her eyes quickly averted as he stood up fully.

He felt his markings warm of their own accord, glowing faintly as he spoke.

"Is there anything you wanted or you just here for the full show?" he asked with a smug sort of smile.

She rolled her eyes before she stepped into his room fully.

"I want to come with you," she declared firmly.

"Come with me where?" Rhys asked, feigning ignorance and she sighed.

"You're such a bad liar, honestly," she declared. "You saw something at the Vault."

The image lingered in his mind before he nodded.

"What was it you saw that was so important?" Fiona asked.

"It's nothing, at least...well, it should be nothing," Rhys mused as he slipped on a cleaner shirt and smoothed it down, noting with a small laugh 'Atlas' was emblazoned across the chest. Must have been one of Theseus'.

"You think it's the Vault Monster?" Fiona asked, and Rhys did not respond. "And you plan to go there _alone_ to confront it?"

Fiona took a step towards him.

"Are you _insane_?" she hissed and he opened his mouth to explain when she cut him off. "I mean, we both know you're a little insane anyways but..."

"I think I saw you," he interrupted and she met his eyes, searching his features for some form of confirmation. When he nodded and gave her a nervous little smile, she sighed a little.

"From your universe, I take it?" she asked, surprised at the sharp pain in her gut as she uttered the words. "And, what, you plan to _rescue_ her...err, me or something?"

Rhys laughed a little.

"I think she's coming here to rescue _me_."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So why do you think the Vault keeps trying to appear?" Theseus asked as he took aim at one of the targets set up in the facility, missing it completely and hitting the back wall as he fired his gun.

"You're asking me?" Tim asked as he watched the Atlas President grit his teeth in frustration. "Widen your stance a little..."

"You seem to know a lot about Daimons, wouldn't be surprised if you know something about Alien Vaults," Theseus replied as he widened his stance, aiming again and still missing the target. He looked at Tim, half-expecting him to snort in derision but he stepped forward, kneeling down before he set Theseus' legs apart, grounding his feet and _oh God his_ _hand was lingering on his leg._

"I know just as much about them as you do," Tim replied as he stood up. He laughed for a moment and Theseus turned to look at him. "Sorry, it's just...you both do the same thing."

He mimicked how Theseus' arms were placed, like he was trying to imitate a bird before he smiled a little. Theseus didn't want to linger on that lovely little grin, so open and handsome and _he needed to concentrate not stare like a lovestruck teenager._

Theseus lowered his arms accordingly, bracing the gun with his other hand before he took the shot, hitting the edge of the target. _Small steps at least._

"You taught Rhys how to fire a gun?" he asked casually and Tim nodded, a small smile on his features. "When, uh, when did that happen?"

"Stop aiming the gun at my chest and I might answer," he replied, nodding towards the gun and indeed, Theseus had it level with the other man's chest as he turned to face him. He lowered the pistol and fought the rising warmness in his cheeks before he coughed awkwardly. "First thing to remember, always know where your pistol is."

"I thought you used a sniper rifle?" Theseus asked and Tim actually smiled a little.

"Baby steps Rhys," he replied before he faltered a little. "I, err, I mean..."

"You can call me that if you want," he replied, softer then he intended and he swore to himself. "Just, uhh, not in front of my employees..."

Theseus turned back to the target and prepped himself, setting his stance.

"Why Theseus?" Tim asked as he nodded for Rhys to take the shot. He hit the edge, still nowhere close to the target.

"Same reason you call yourself Perseus," Rhys countered as he reloaded. "You wanted to be a hero of your own right, not..."

Rhys tensed before he fired, a lot closer to the target and Tim watched him with sudden interest.

"Go on," he encouraged.

"When I took over Atlas, I, I wanted a fresh start. From being some corporate lackey, from Hyperion," he replied as he took another shot, nearly hitting the target. "From _him_."

He loaded the gun more aggressively now.

"If he was the monster I slew then I think I deserved to call myself the goddamn hero," he continued sharply, hitting the target easily. He fired repeatedly, tearing it to shreds as he gritted his teeth. "And unlike him I plan to _actually_ bring some good to this awful planet."

The gun clicked as he ran out of bullets and he threw it to the ground sharply, his whole body tensed.

Tim approached hesitantly, picking up the pistol as he smiled to himself.

"Part of step one isn't tossing the gun to the ground once you're finished," he teased lightly as he stood up, Rhys' eyes on him as he moved and he blinked a few times. "What?"

"Why do you need to look like him?" Tim swore he heard Rhys mutter as Tim slipped the pistol into his pocket. "Hell, that's probably part of the reason..."

He shook his head and ran his hand through his hair.

"Just an endless cycle of insanity," Rhys mused with a dry laugh.

He looked right at Tim as he spoke.

"You want to know what the worst part of it is though?" Rhys asked. "I actually _miss_ the bastard sometimes. I have these moments where I'll do something, and I intend to rub it in his face...when I remember he's not there anymore. That it's just me..."

Rhys laughed a little to himself.

"My employees think I just talk to myself because I like to. Not because it's a force of habit. Because I'm expecting _him_ to respond."

Timothy nodded and Rhys smiled weakly.

"And I'm telling all this to the man built to look just like him. Somewhere someone's laughing their ass off," he continued before he reached for the pistol. "C'mon, we should probably..."

"Is it just because I look like him?" Tim asked softly, so quietly that Rhys barely heard it.

"What is?" Rhys asked automatically.

"That you have this... _whatever **this** is_ , for me," Tim responded. He gauged Rhys' reaction, his stomach dropping as Rhys refused to meet his eyes. "I'm not him, Rhys. The sooner you remember that the..."

"I like you _because you're not him_ , Timothy," Rhys replied as he forced himself to meet those mismatched eyes. "Because you're everything he could have been."

"I'm not his replacement," Tim replied sharply.

"I never said..." Rhys began before he ran his hand through his hair again.

"I. Am. Not. Handsome. Jack," Timothy emphasized. "I am not about to become your form of wish fulfillment, just because you always wanted him to look at you like you were the centre of his universe."

Rhys fell silent as the words hit him sharply.

"And he did, didn't he? Sure, it was fleeting but oh God wasn't it intoxicating? I just imagine you practically begging for him to give you some command, all in the hope he would look at you like you mattered," Tim spat out. "Do you actually want to get rid of him...or do you just want to bring him back here to prove to him that you became something after all?"

Tim laughed sharply.

"Do you think he'll actually care? No one matters to him except himself, and what others can do for him. You want to know what he'd probably say if he saw this, everything you built up just to spite him?"

Tim leaned in close.

"I look forward to seeing it all crumble kiddo," he spat with such a poisonous yet charming air that Rhys felt his chest tighten. "Did you really think this could last? This little play at being me?"

Rhys felt himself begin to shake, images of a pixelated blue figure flashing through his mind.

"Enjoy the crown while it still lasts, kiddo," Tim snarled and Rhys shot forward, taking the pistol out of Tim's pocket as he aimed it at the double's head.

The act dropped and Timothy swallowed as Rhys prepped the gun.

"Rhys, what are you..." Tim asked.

Tim blinked a few times.

"Rhys?" he asked, noticing how badly the pistol shook. "Rhys, put the gun down."

Rhys did not respond, still shaking and Tim took a few steps forward.

He easily removed the pistol from the younger man's hands, tossing it away as he took off his sniper rifle. He placed it on the ground, watching Rhys as he stood up.

"I-I didn't..." Tim began as Rhys continued to shake, refusing to look at him. "Rhys, _what did he do to you_?"

"He ruined me," Rhys replied brokenly before he gave a laugh bordering on hysterical. "You want to know why I want to go back so bad?"

Tim nodded.

"Because I want there to be at least one Rhys in the universe that doesn't have to wake up every night from nightmares, ones where Jack fully infects his mind, ones where he's forced to kill everyone he cares about, where he didn't get off Helios in time, where he has to relive over and over again the moment where he watched everyone he had left leave him to die on a crashing satellite."

Rhys laughed brokenly.

"Because I'm selfish and I want to give myself an actual chance."

Tim sighed before he took a deep breath.

"Then let me come with you."

Rhys looked at him, startled by his words.

"Why?" Rhys asked.

Tim laughed drily.

"Because you're not the only one who wants a second chance. And hell, if it means Jack gets everything that's been coming to him...I'm more than happy to help."

The doors near them opened as Loader Bot ran in. The pair looked at him in surprise.

"Have you two seen the Gortys pieces?" he asked, and the pair shook their heads, before Rhys fully absorbed his words and swore loudly.

"Loader, do you know if Rhys and Fiona are still in the building?"

"They're not, I just checked," Angel declared as a screen dropped from the ceiling.

"Why would they..." Tim began in horror.

Rhys laughed sharply.

" _They're planning to just open the Vault themselves_."


	14. Getting to the Vault

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The penultimate chapter before the final showdown.....

Rhys hurriedly slipped the pieces of Gortys into a satchel as Fiona stood by the truck, looking livid as she crossed her arms.

“You would think you’d check to make sure we had enough gas to get there,” she commented as she looked at Rhys, the satchel slung across his back. “What? No witty response?”

Rhys’ mouth was set in a thin line as he looked at the ECHOcomm, frowning as he began walking.

“We’re about a day’s walk from there, we should get ourselves moving,” he replied instead.

“I’m not so sure I want to take advice from the man who got us stranded in the middle of the desert,” Fiona replied as she caught up to him.

“Oh, I’m sorry, next time you make me steal a car…” Rhys retorted.

“I didn’t make you steal anything!” Fiona replied. “I just… _suggested_ , it might be faster if we drove there.”

“Well you could have _suggested_ another car….” Rhys grumbled as he checked the ECHO again. “Instead of just throwing everything in the first one…”

Fiona rolled her eyes as she looked at the ECHO comm, grimacing as she saw how far they had to walk. Though to be honest, she was a tad more concerned with the rest of the group coming after them then the fact she would need to trek across the desert.

Not to mention what they would do once they retrieved…her?

“So why would she…err, I need to rescue you anyhow?” Fiona asked as they walked.

Rhys shrugged a little.

“I learned a long, long time ago not to question your…err, her motives,” Rhys replied as he checked the ECHO again. A soft smile graced his features and Fiona found her stomach twisting again in realization.

“You two are together, aren’t you?” she asked, and Rhys flushed a little before he shook his head rapidly. “What, I’m not good enough?”

She had meant for it to be a jab at him, but it came out sounding a bit _too_ flirtatious and she mentally cursed herself.

“I, uhh, I was too focused on, umm, Sasha,” he admitted as he scratched the back of his neck in sheer awkwardness.

“Oh,” Fiona replied, her stomach twisting again. “So, when I ‘rescue’ you then you’re going to go back and…what? Find a way to worm her away from August?”

Rhys laughed sharply at that before he shook his head.

“I-I meant that…well…” Rhys began before he took a deep breath. “Look, in my universe, err, Loader Bot ended up kidnapping us both so that we could assemble Gortys…and, umm…”

Fiona nodded for him to continue and he went red.

“What? You suddenly realized your heart would always belong to Handsome Jack?” Fiona asked and he chuckled.

“I, umm, I think I…uhh,” Rhys replied, his gaze intent on the device in his hands. The dot on the map continued to pulsate and he swallowed before he continued. “Have you ever realized you were very, very wrong about someone?”

“No, I tend to read people quite well,” Fiona replied with a smile and Rhys finally met her eyes, giving her a small smile in return.

“Well, as it turned out I was wrong about you. Uhh, her, I mean,” Rhys declared. “Well, actually, it was more I was wrong about…myself, I-I guess.”

Rhys took a deep breath.

“What I said to you, before you got kidnapped by, uhh, me. Well, I meant it. And yeah, I know it’s a little strange that I had a thing for your sister…” Rhys rambled a little.

“She never really had a thing for you,” Fiona admitted and Rhys looked at her sharply.

“What?” Rhys asked, his eyes wide. “What do you mean s-she didn’t have…”

Fiona sighed before she continued.

“Look, Sasha thought you were cute. But you were Hyperion, and such an ass, and we both knew you would do anything to get off the planet. So she didn’t allow herself to get too attached,” Fiona continued. She smiled a little to herself. “She thought your little crush was adorable, actually.”

“Oh,” Rhys replied as he looked back at the ECHO.

“Sorry to break it to you,” Fiona retorted with a shrug, and Rhys just smiled a little. “So, you _adore_ me?”

He laughed nervously at that and refused to meet her eyes.

“Well, I mean, I, uhh…yeah, actually,” Rhys confessed. “Well, her, I mean. N-not that I don’t like you too, it’s just…’cause I do like you, don’t get me wrong…”

“You don’t need to explain,” Fiona replied with an amused little smile.

“I mean, it doesn’t really matter does it considering you probably still hate me, but…” Rhys replied with a small shrug. “And considering I’m probably going to leave in a few days…”

Fiona didn’t respond as they walked for a few moments, the words running through her mind.

“I don’t hate you,” she replied quietly. “Sure, I mean, you annoy me to Elpis and back but I don’t hate you.”

“Aww, shucks, you mean it?” Rhys teased as he nudged her with his arm and despite herself she laughed a little.

Their little moment was quickly quelled as they saw a bandit camp nearby, the pair of them falling silent in the hopes that they could just sneak past.

If only they could be so lucky.

 

Fiona winced to herself as Rhys helped her rest on a nearby rock, standing nearby as he fiddled with the ECHOcomm.

It had been like dominoes, the bandits triggering more bandits, which triggered a group of Skags, which then attracted another smaller yet more terrifying group of bandits.

Not to mention the ECHO had been damaged in the chaos, meaning for the moment they were stranded in the middle of the desert.

She gritted her teeth as she whipped off her jacket, gritting her teeth in frustration as she glanced down at the blood blossoming from her side. The red was slowly but surely staining her shirt and she swore to herself, touching the wetness automatically.

Rhys looked up from trying to fix the ECHO, dropping it sharply as he knelt down beside her.

His fingers hovered above her side and Fiona rolled her eyes before she yanked up her shirt a little, her side exposed.

“Just use your metal arm and pick the bullet out,” she ordered through gritted teeth.

“Isn’t that just going to infect…” Rhys began as she looked at him sharply. He rose his hands in self-defence before he shifted a bit closer. “Just, uhh, give me a minute.”

He took a few breaths before he leaned in close, his normal hand resting in the dirt as he reached into the wound with his metal one. She shifted away automatically as pain shot through her and his normal hand went to her opposite hip, holding her in place as he tried again.

He hummed to himself softly as he kept trying to pick it out, his chest practically resting against her arm and he gave a little huff of frustration before he took out his metal hand. He wiped it on his shirt and used it to wrap her arm around his neck, his normal hand moving up to her side as he pulled her closer.

It was the first time Fiona actually felt a sharp retort die in her throat, his hand cool as he continued to hum.

She grimaced as he hit a nerve and he gave her an apologetic smile before he went back to humming.

“What the hell are you humming?” Fiona asked in annoyance and Rhys looked a little startled before he responded.

“Sorry, helps me think,” he replied quietly as he went back to work. He interrupted his humming to give a sharp little grunt before he pulled out the bullet with a triumphant grin, dropping it into the sand. He tore off part of his shirt and wrapped it around the wound. 

They sat there in silence for a few moments, Rhys’s hand still resting against her side as he swallowed audibly.

“We should, ummm…” he began as neither of them moved, and Fiona nodded as she saw his tattoos begin to glow out of the corner of her eye.

Fiona chuckled against his mouth as for once in their damn lives they agreed upon something, her side still hurting as he pulled her into his lap.

His hands rested on her hips as he pulled her in closer, his thumbs making small circles as their mouths met again and again with a desperation that startled her.

Because while it was true that she didn’t hate him (anymore), she…she wasn’t supposed to _want this_. She wasn’t supposed to _like_ how some damn corporate lackey’s mouth moved gloriously against hers as her fingertips rested on his tattoos, their warmth spurning her on as her hands tangled into his hair. She wasn’t supposed to feel this odd sort of _desperation_ to expose more of his chest, to trace his neck with her mouth as he moaned deliciously.

“Fiona,” he groaned a little, his voice going down an octave as she peeled off his shirt. She leaned back as she felt the tattoos go blisteringly warm, radiant neon that cast her features in a strange glow as they pulsated wildly. His hair was completely eschew, his mouth looking more and more attractive with each passing moment as he watched her with hardened eyes.

Her fingers traced over the markings, chunky blocks of colour that were nowhere close to the elegant swirls of a Siren. The ones on his chest were spaced apart, long thick chunks of glowing bluish-violet, the rest of the markings appearing to be in sets of four clunky lines that shifted direction as they went down his arm, appearing to follow almost a pattern of their own. She found her fingertips making little swirls between them, absentmindedly musing to herself that they would perfectly align with a Siren’s markings when he pulled her back to him and brushed his mouth along the hollow of her throat.

“Rhys?” she gasped as he worshipped her neck. He made a small noise of affirmation, rumbling against her skin and she clutched him a bit tighter instinctively. “Do you think we could possibly move this to somewhere where there _isn’t_ a possibility of us being killed by Skags?”

“But that’s the best part,” he purred jokingly and she laughed as she slid herself off him. She offered him a hand up, which he used to pull her close to him again as they stood up, his lips pressed against her forehead before he looked around.

“What about there?” he asked as they spotted in the distance what looked like a cavern.

“Well, that’s certainly convenient,” Fiona declared with a wry laugh.

 

“They must have run out of gas,” Tim commented as he looked at the abandoned truck. He noticed all the pieces were gone and gritted his teeth a little as he turned around to look at Thesus. Err, Rhys.

“How far do you think they may have walked?” Loader Bot asked Rhys, who shrugged a little.

“Hold on, I might be able to help,” a familiar voice chirped from Rhys’ ECHO, before it began to faintly ping. “I was able to hack into his systems before, there should still be a trace left on his hardware…”

“You have access to Rhys’ hardware? Why?” Tim asked uncertainly as he glanced at Rhys, who looked just as uncomfortable as he felt.

“Have…have you always had access, Angel?” Rhys asked, panic starting to rise in his eyes.

“I’m not as ingrained as Jack was,” Angel confessed. “But I might have found a way to put a tracker on you in case, uhh, anything happened…and since this Rhys is the same kind of hardware I know how to access it.”

Tim shuddered a little as Rhys nodded mutely. It was less a look of betrayal then one of cautious acceptance, his mouth set in a thin line as they climbed back into their vehicle. Rhys typed in the coordinates as Angel recited them.

“Apparently they didn’t get too far,” Tim mused as they drove along, wondering to himself why they seemed to be locked on one spot before his stomach sunk with dread at the fact it was likely they were just a pair of corpses that something or someone had gotten to before they could.

He’d learned not to be too optimistic in these situations.

The truck rumbled as they approached the cavern, Rhys cautiously exiting the vehicle as Tim stuck close to him. At first the only sound they were greeted with was their own breathing, Loader Bot volunteering to stay with the car and Rhys jumped a little as Tim kicked a rock, the sound scattering around their surroundings for a few moments. He gave a nervous little chuckle before there was a sharp groan that reverberated around them.

Rhys took a few steps back, his back colliding with Tim’s chest as Tim gave a small oomph of surprise.

The groans continued for a few moments, Tim’s eyes narrowing as he tried to gauge the situation before Rhys turned around and tried to maneuver Tim to face the other way. There was an awkward grin on his lips as he chuckled nervously, practically trying to shove Tim out of the cave as Tim looked at him questioningly.

“Give it a few minutes,” Rhys declared as quietly as possible, and Tim cocked an eyebrow causing the other man to grin nervously. “Well, uhh, maybe ten minutes…perhaps twenty, umm…”

Rhys was getting redder by the minute and as another groan sounded around them it clicked into place.

Tim gave a small giggle that was entirely too sweet for a face like Jack’s before he plopped down in the middle of the cavern, checking over his sniper rifle. Rhys watched him for a few moments before he nervously sat down beside him.

“Sorry,” Rhys declared gently as he looked at Tim. “I-I know you had a bit of a thing for him.”

“Ehh, never thought it would happen anyways,” Tim confessed as he kept looking at the rifle. Rhys was starting to suspect he was less interested in making sure the weapon was in top shape than having something to do with his hands. “Good thing you, uhh, know what you sound like or I might have rushed in there…”

“Well if I start swearing up a storm then we’ll know I might actually be dying in there,” Rhys replied awkwardly as the groans began to dim, and he was a tad grateful. Hopefully Fiona had clamped a hand over his mouth or something. “Have to say though, I’m a little…err, surprised.”

“Why?” Tim asked in interest and Rhys shrugged.

“I don’t know, I just…I mean, I always thought Fiona was attractive but I never thought…well, that she’d even want to…” Rhys confessed. “God, this is weird.”

“Very weird,” Tim replied automatically and Rhys snorted a little. “So, uhh, do you think you’ll be finished soon?”

As if on cue the groans resumed, joined by sharp little gasps that caused the two men lingering outside the cave to look at each other before they began to laugh at the sheer awkwardness of it all.

There appeared to be a crescendo to the noise before it died down again, and Rhys stood up.

“C’mon, we should probably get them and then all go back to headquarters.”

The pair walked further into the cavern, Tim spotting first how Rhys appeared to be trying to help Fiona get back into her clothes as she huffed at him in exasperation.

Tim coughed into his hand to get their attention, trying not to cackle as they looked visibly startled before they began scrambling around wildly. Fiona appeared to be searching for her gun, and Tim stiffened as he noticed Rhys’ markings were pulsating strongly.

“Don’t worry, we’re just here to take you back to…” Thesus began before a sharp rumble went through the cavern. It seemed to shake the ground as well as the walls, and the group all looked at each other in confusion before another rumble went through the ground.

“What the…” Rhys began.

“It’s the Vault,” Angel chirped from the ECHO comm resting on Thesus’ hip, and Thesus seemed to just realize she had probably heard the entirety of the conversation Tim and him had just had. “It’s trying to ground itself, must mean it’s closer than we thought.”

At that precise moment the quivering stopped and the group all looked at each other hesitantly.

“Guess it settled…”

A sharp cry pierced through the air and Rhys went white as the rest of the group looked at him.

“What is it?” Fiona asked quickly and Rhys chuckled hysterically.

“Guess we don’t need Gortys to open it,” he declared as the ground began to shake again, this time like some large creature was walking across it. Which, if Rhys was correct, there currently was.

_And no one there to defend them from being smashed to a pulp._

Rhys scrambled over to the satchel that contained the Gortys pieces, picking them up before he let one piece go with a sharp yelp.

“What are you doing?” Tim asked and Fiona’s eyes widened in understanding.

She picked up her piece and jammed it together with the piece that Rhys was holding, the pair appearing to work together in tandem before they scrambled out of the cavern with Gortys tucked under Rhys’ arm.

“Hello!” she chirped brightly as she woke up. “What’s going on?”

Another sharp cry bounced around the cavern.

“Oh no, oh no oh no oh no,” Gortys began to loop in worry.

Rhys stumbled a little and dropped her, causing her to bounce for a few moments before she righted herself on two thick legs.

“Are you okay?” Fiona asked and the little robot gave her a thumbs up.

“All good,” she replied before her features flickered to those resembling worry. “Rhys…why is there two of you?”

Other Rhys chuckled nervously.

“And why are you here with Gentle Jim?”

Timothy gave a sharp sort of laugh at this.

“And why does it look like Fiona has her shirt on backwards?”

Fiona looked down at her top and gritted her teeth before she righted it.

The ground rumbled sharp enough to knock the group to their knees.

“Can we _please_ save the chit-chat until after we defeat the giant Vault Guardian?” Rhys asked and Gortys looked nervous. “It’s fine, we’ll give you the last upgrade and then we’ll be able to take him down.”

“Are you sure? ‘Cause _last time_ …” Gortys began as the group stumbled to their feet.

“Trust me… _I’ve done this before_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will Gortys be able to defeat the Vault Monster? Again?  
> Will Rhys be able to go back to his own time? More importantly, does he really WANT to?  
> And most important of all...WHO WAS IN THE VAULT?
> 
> Find out in the final chapter of Before the War, coming soon!


	15. The Vault and the Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we've reached it. The final chapter. Wow. 
> 
> Just a note:  
> Despite me saying that Before the War is not a direct sequel, there are definite elements in this chapter that have to do with the story After the Vault. I've done my best to give a quick refresher of certain things, but I would recommend you reading the first story if you haven't done so already to refresh your memory. 
> 
> Well, that's enough from me! Hope you enjoy kiddos!

Well... _this_ was an unexpected development.

The group stood there in shock for a few moments, Gortys towering over them.

The first Vault had settled alright...but now there was a _second_ one that was present, thought thankfully only a solitary Vault Monster.

"How the hell can there be two Vaults?" Thesus shrieked as Timothy scrambled to prep his sniper rifle.

"I'd be more concerned about the Vault Monster, but hey, to each their own..." Tim replied as he aimed at the one that was emerging. Rhys gave a sharp cry of protest before he forced Tim to lower the weapon.

"Don't shoot at it!" Rhys declared sharply. "It's not going to help!"

Rhys took in a shuddering breath, trying to remember what they did the last time.

"We do this as planned. Gortys and I can keep the Monster distracted while the rest of you can try to get into the Vault..."

" _Are you insane_?" Fiona yelled at him.

"A little, but I think you knew that already," Rhys joked weakly as the Monster stalked towards them.

"How the hell do you plan to..." Fiona began as the ground rumbled sharply.

“Just get to the Vault!” he barked, and she cocked an eyebrow before she shook her head. “God, Fiona for once in your life can you not be so damn stubborn?”

“Thought that’s what you adored about me,” Fiona countered with a smirk.

“Could you two stop flirting?” Thesus barked as the ground continued to rumble. “In case you didn’t notice, we still have a homicidal Vault Monster who wants to tear us apart…”

“Rhys….” Tim began, causing the two men to look at him. “I mean Thesus. Take Fiona and go into the Vault. Rhys and I will stay back and try to fight off the Monster…”

“I’m not going to leave you here to die!” Thesus barked sharply.

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you okay with _me_ dying?” Rhys asked him, and the other man shrugged. “What the hell is _wrong with you_?”

“We don’t have time to argue about this,” Angel declared from Thesus’ ECHOcomm. “I can help protect you two when you go to the Vault.”

“And I can help Rhys,” Loader Bot declared. “Not to mention we have Gortys.”

As if to emphasize their point Gortys gave a small wave.

“I’m not going to just abandon you!” Fiona declared and Rhys gave her a small grin.

“I’ll be fine, Fi,” he replied as he drew her in close, giving her a tight hug as his mouth rested near her ear. “And so will you. Promise me if this all goes to hell you just run, get your sister, and leave Pandora, alright?”

She nodded against his chest, his mouth pressed to her temple before he released her. She seemed to debate something before she pulled him by his shirt towards her, her mouth colliding with his. It lasted for a moment before she pulled away and gave him a small nod. He looked a little dazed, but he still returned it.

 

_It was like the Vault was…skipping. Her hand seemed to be locked onto the casket as everything around her flickered and shone, flashes of violet assaulting her vision. She risked a glance down at her arm to see that her childhood scars were glowing purple, the veins underneath pulsating as she tried to tear her arm away._

_She tried to look outside the Vault only to see the same series of flashes, and she gritted her teeth as she saw the neon purple begin crawling across her chest. She let out a sharp yell as the Vault seemed to solidify._

_It was then that the Vault disappeared entirely, the sharp bang sending her to her knees as her hand finally fell from the casket._

_She took a few shuddering breaths, looking over her arm to see it was still glowing neon before she collapsed._

 

One of the Vaults petered out entirely and Thesus and Fiona stared at it in horror, considering that had been their destination.

While the other Vault happened to be on the opposite end of the canyon they were currently trapped in.

They glanced back to see that Rhys and Timothy were trying to fight the monster off, and Fiona sighed before she began to prep her pistol.

“What are you doing?” Thesus asked her and she looked at him sharply.

“You can go to the Vault if you want,” she declared as her gun clicked into place. “But as for me…well, if we’re going towards the Monster anyways might as well be of some help…”

She half-expected this Rhys to disagree, volunteer to help as well but he only nodded and sprinted off. She rolled her eyes as she checked the amount of bullets she had, darting towards the quartet trying to subdue the monster.

 

_She opened her eyes blearily as she forced herself to rise to her feet, brushing back her long brown hair with her hand as she checked her arm._

_It was still neon purple, the veins clearly visible as the neon pulsated through her and she held it as she stumbled out of the cavern._

_She was immediately greeted by someone colliding with her, and she looked over to see a familiar mass of brown hair as her sister clutched her tightly._

_“Oh thank the Eridians…” her sister gasped as she held her tighter._

_Fiona clutched her back just as fiercely, trying to dispel the image of what her sister had looked like the last time she had seen her. Motionless, the blood leaking out of her frame as Fiona tried not to scream._

_“How long was I gone?” Fiona asked as she pulled away, and Sasha smiled a little._

_“A month, we’ve been getting Vaughn to send out search parties. August has been helping too, and Loader Bot apparently has some contacts that were more than willing to…”_

_Fiona looked at the motley crew standing before her, surprised at herself that she was happy to see August when she noted the lack of one person in particular._

_“Where’s Rhys?” she asked quickly, and Sasha frowned._

_“I…I thought he was with you…”_

Rhys dodged as the beast swiped at him, Gortys using the opportunity to push the beast back. She stumbled a little and Rhys gritted his teeth as he tried to will his Daimon abilities to appear, to little avail it would seem.

He was about to ask Angel or Tim for any advice when he saw Fiona running towards them.

He opened his mouth to scream at her to stay back when the beast rounded on her, raising its hand to knock her aside, and Rhys watched in horror as her frame flew across the canyon as its hand met her body.

“Loader Bot, get to Fiona and get her to safety. Now,” Rhys growled as he felt his markings warm up rapidly. The beast seemed occupied with finishing her off and Rhys clenched his fists. “Gortys, I need you to make sure Fiona and Loader Bot are protected.”

“Not a problem,” Gortys chirped, sprinting by the monster as Rhys felt his anger begin to swallow him whole, each moment his vision sharpening as he watched Loader Bot run towards Fiona’s frame.

Rhys waited until LB had picked Fiona up, carrying her away as the Monster seemed like it was going to attack them.

“I would suggest you don’t do that,” he declared coolly, his voice not quite his own. It was elegant and smooth, bouncing around the canyon and the beast looked at him questioningly. “We are not your enemies. We merely wish to open the Vault to right the wrongs of our past.”

There was a silence before someone responded.

“Ahh, Ares…we’ve been waiting for you…” a cool voice responded, the voice bouncing around in his ears.

 

_“We have to go back, he might still be…” Fiona began before she was held back by Sasha._

_“Fiona, wait,” Sasha began as a shudder ran through the ground. The pair looked up to see the Vault begin to shimmer before it disappeared completely, and Fiona yanked herself from her sister’s grip as her heart fell into her stomach._

_“No…” she gasped before she felt her legs give out underneath her, the pain in her chest threatening to consume her whole as she looked at the location where the Vault had once been. “Please no…”_

_“Gortys!” Fiona barked out sharply. “I need you to try to reopen the Vault!”_

_Gortys whirled up to her and placed a hand on her arm._

_“I can’t,” she replied quietly._

_“Why can’t you open it again?” Fiona asked, the desperation creeping into her voice._

_“When Atlas built me…they gave me one shot. And we just used it,” Gortys replied sadly. “I-I’m sorry.”_

_Fiona gritted her teeth as she ran her hands through her hair, her breath going in and out in sharp gasps as she tried to remain calm. As she tried not to dwell on the fact that Rhys was probably trapped somewhere with no chance of getting back home._

_That once again, she was alone._

“Waiting for what?” Rhys asked calmly.

Tim watched in awe as his friend spoke, every syllable seemingly ancient and demanding respect. His markings glowed brightly as the Traveller regarded him, the pair standing there practically motionless.

Tim felt someone grab his arm and whipped around to see Thesus, who was pulling him towards the Vault.

“What are you doing?” Tim asked sharply.

“We need to get to the Vault!” Thesus insisted, and Tim shook his head.

“I’m not going until I know Rhys is safe,” Tim replied, and Thesus bit his lip a little as he frowned.

“He seems fine…” Thesus tried to reason.

“No, I’m not leaving until the Traveller disappears. Until I know for certain that there’s no risk of him getting himself hurt if all this goes wrong.”

Thesus didn’t respond, tugging Tim down before he kissed the other man gently. His long fingers danced over the other man’s features, like he was trying to memorize every detail before Tim felt a slight pressure in his neck.

He pulled away, feeling himself grow unsteady as he saw one of Thesus’ fingertips seemed to leak a strange orange fluid.

“If it’s any consolation I’m sorry,” Thesus murmured as Tim collapsed.

Thesus sighed before he flung Tim’s arm across his shoulders, dragging them into the Vault.

“Just think of the destination and it should take us there,” Angel declared and Thesus nodded. “You…you did the right thing, Rhys.”

He sighed to himself as he placed their hands on the casket.

“Let’s hope you’re right…” he muttered as he opened the casket. There was a bright flash of light, and the pair disappeared within moments.

 

“Your existence signals the war is close,” the voice replied softly. “An event we have been waiting for, for centuries.”

“What’s this of a war?” Rhys asked.

“Patience Ares, all will be revealed in time,” the voice replied.

The beast stooped down, dropping to one knee as it held out its palm. In it a small sphere of light seemed to flicker in and out, neon violet mixing with neon blue that cast shadows on Rhys’ features.

“The Vault can only be used for one journey,” the voice continued. “And your friends have just used it.”

Rhys turned around to see the Vault begin to flicker in and out, and he felt his stomach drop.

“It will return, eventually,” the voice declared. “But it is unlikely your friends will.”

“What does that mean?” Rhys asked sharply as he noticed Tim was gone, his stomach dropping entirely.

“So long as Gortys remains activated, the Vault will remain in place. She is holding it here, and thus preventing it from leaving. Which means your friends are with each passing moment poisoning themselves with Eridium.”

Rhys looked at the creature sharply.

“How do I stop it?” Rhys asked quickly, and the creature nodded to its hand.

“There is nothing more you can do in this world except to leave, Ares,” the voice replied. “We can allow you a safe journey back to your universe…”

“I’m not leaving unless I know they are safe!” Rhys replied sharply. “All of them.”

The creature seemed to look past him at the Vault before the voice in his head laughed.

“Do not place your loyalties in those that do not deserve it,” the voice replied.

“What happens to you if I leave?” Rhys asked and the creature shook its head.

“That is not for you to know,” the voice replied.

“Are they meant to die?” Rhys asked as panic rose in his chest.

“We are all meant to die at some point, dear Ares,” the voice replied before the creature’s hand slammed down on top of him.

 

Nearby, Fiona rose her head blearily as Loader Bot tried to set her bones, trying to look past Gortys’ legs when she heard a sharp thud. The trio turned towards the source to see that the Traveller’s palm was resting against the ground. It rose its hand within moments, flexing it before it rolled its shoulders back and approached the trio.

Fiona tried to scramble for her gun as Gortys prepped herself for fighting, Loader Bot standing close by and Fiona’s heart pounded as she noticed Rhys was nowhere to be found. Her lips formed his name as the creature towered over them, and she tensed in anticipation for the creature to destroy them.

The creature seemed to swipe down before it acted as though it was restrained, a sharp scream emitted before it stumbled back. Strange babbling filled their ears and Fiona sat up in sheer agony as the creature looked at them, gritting her teeth.

The creature lunged forward, tackling Gortys before it ripped off part of her armour, and Fiona realized with a jolt that it was the last piece. The creature stumbled back, scrambling towards the Vault before it slipped into it, the Vault flickering before it disappeared entirely.

Fiona’s eyes scanned over the canyon, no signs of any of their companions to be seen.

“Perseus?” she called out as she tried to stand up. “Thesus?”

She took a deep breath.

“Rhys?”

There was no response. She tried to sit up only for Loader Bot to hold her down.

“You are hurt,” Loader Bot stated and she gritted her teeth.

“I’ll be fine,” she spat, about to try again when she felt small hands patting her arm.

“They’re all gone,” Gortys declared gently. “I-I’m sorry, Fiona.”

Fiona felt her stomach twist as she lay back, allowing Loader Bot to lift her into his arms before he began to carry her away from the canyon, cradling her gently and for some reason, that was what broke her.

The tears flowed freely, the water running down her dirt stained cheeks as she dimly felt Loader Bot place her in a vehicle. She risked a glance back at the canyon, greeted to the sight of dirt as the vehicle rumbled away.

“Where shall we take her?” Loader Bot asked Gortys, who only shrugged.

“Hollow Point,” Fiona declared faintly. “Sasha can help patch me up.”

She felt a wave of fatigue settle over her and she closed her eyes as she allowed herself to slip into unconsciousness.

 

_If you asked any of the Vault Hunters there that day, they all would have told you different moments of what happened next._

_Janey liked to mention that the ground shook again, more violently this time, knocking everyone off their feet. Athena was convinced the jarring motion happened after the flickering orb of blue and purple appeared from thin air, a figure revealed once it had dissipated._

_August was convinced that half of the figure was glowing, while Sasha always made sure to mention that people couldn’t glow. Not unless they were Sirens, and the person that emerged was certainly not a Siren._

_Gortys had whirled up to him, small arms going around his leg as he sat up shakily, jewel-like eyes softening with each passing moment as he took a few shaky breaths. He rubbed his head, trying his best to remember how he had arrived here, the last few moments a blank, when he looked up at the group._

_Loader Bot was convinced he first had helped him to his feet, making some comment as Fiona stood up sharply._

_Everyone could agree, however, that the pair looked at each other in complete awe. Strangely perfect symmetry, both looking like they had been through hell and back as they approached each other. Rhys, in a torn t-shirt, his hair chaotic as his tattoos glowed faintly. Fiona, her long brown hair in a loose plait as she wore a leather jacket, her original one gone. She looked like a Pandoran bandit._

_Rhys had never thought she looked more beautiful. And Fiona, well, she was a bit too preoccupied with trying to take in his features to really notice much else about the rest of him._

_“Hi jackass,” she declared as they stood in front of each other, her hands in her pockets. “Nice to see you’re still alive.”_

_“Hello scum,” he replied, a bright grin on his features as they stood there awkwardly. “Nice to see you’re not, uhh, dead.”_

_It had been Fiona to make the first move, her hand resting on his shoulder as she grinned. He took her hand and used it to pull her close to him, his hands going around her waist as her hands went to his._

_The pair clutched each other tightly, Rhys’ hand going to her hair as he made soft little noises, murmuring something to her the rest of the group couldn’t hear which only made her grip him tighter. He kissed her forehead before he spoke again, causing Sasha’s mouth to fall open at the tender action._

_“Guess you owe me twenty bucks,” August declared as he nudged Sasha’s arm and she laughed in disbelief._

_Fiona nodded against Rhys’ chest before she pulled away, Rhys swiping away at some of the tears that had begun to fall before she stood on her toes and met his mouth with hers. There was a sense of a desperation to it that made Sasha laugh a little as Vaughn awkwardly looked away._

_Rhys grinned against her mouth as he pulled her close, too overjoyed to consider what he had left behind. Who he had left behind._

_Fiona responded in turn, trying not to remember all she had lost, only to find it again._

_Sure, it wasn’t the ideal start to…whatever this might be._

_But then again… **when was anything simple on Pandora**? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I would love to thank all of you for reading this chaotic little story! I sincerely hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. 
> 
> So now for the best part: I can finally stop writing...oh wait. No I can't. *screams into eternity*
> 
> So I'm going to have two separate stories. One is going to be called Glimpses of Chaos which deals with our dear Thesus, our lovely Timothy and our sweet Angel, and their adventures to try to take down the Handsome Jack AI (which will be more of a one-shot series), while the other will be During the Mayhem, which follows the storyline set up in After the Vault and Before the War (which will be of a similar format).


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